Dark Matter
by Ensektisyde
Summary: A What If Dark Naruto Wasn't Met At The Falls Of Truth fic. Naruto meets his darker self and is tricked into  somewhat  releasing it. He returns to Konoha with a far different personality than he had before. AU,Pairing undecided if any. Rating may go up.
1. Dark Naruto

**_Warning_! You will have to be up to date with the latest manga in order for a lot of this to not be OOC.**

**Proposal: When fighting Haku instead of the Kyuubi being released something else happens. Dark Naruto is released and a different Naruto makes his way to Konoha.**

**You guys remember Dark Naruto, right? From chapter 490-something of the Manga? If you do then you'll get that he's Naruto's manifestation of all his darker emotions or something. In this story, Dark Naruto tricks Naruto into somewhat releasing him. I say somewhat 'cause I'm not really sure if this can count as _releasing_ but yeah. **

**If that sounds interesting to you please do read on. **

* * *

**_Chapter 1_**

Naruto had to blink several times after he had woken up.

It was fairly dark where he was. Where he was, he believed, was some sort of underground sewer passage.

It was also cold and damp. And big. Looking around there were many different passages and hallways. Dozens upon dozens of possible routes stared him down.

However only one route seemed to appeal to him, _compel _him even.

So he followed that one.

And was led to a gigantic room with a giant set of bars to the side opposite of him. Behind those bars were two of the largest and reddest eyes he had ever seen. Attached to those ridiculously large red eyes was a large fox-like face. Actually it was more than fox-like. It was an actual giant fox's face, muzzle and all. At the site of him the muzzle opened wide to show a fairly menacing set of razor-sharp, jagged teeth.

"_**Well, well filthy mortal. It's about time we've met." **_Its voice was deep and, just like pretty much every other part of him, menacing.

"_**Can you guess who I am?" **_He didn't really have to. Scratch that, he didn't really _want _to.

The giant fox noted his uncomfortable silence and its massive grin got even larger.

"_**Say hello to the greatest demon of all. The Nine Tailed Fox Demon responsible for the deaths of countless insignificant morals: The Great Kyuubi." **_

It was an unsurprising development so he stayed silent.

"_**Why so silent? You certainly can't be mute. I would have ensured any sort of damage to your vocal chords be immediately repaired." **_

At that moment he glared hatefully. It was his first real reaction, though it went ignored.

"_**Perhaps you are far too in awe of my overwhelming presence. How unsur-"**_

"Shut up you asshole fox!" His shout was loud and angry, perfectly mirroring how he felt at the moment.

"_**How dare you speak to me this way, you insi-"**_

"He's got a point there you shithead fox demon. Shut the hell up." Another voice had cut the demon's roars short.

Naruto turned to face the owner of the approaching voice. It was a teenaged blonde-haired boy who looked to be his own exactly his own height. He had on orange pants similar to his own and the very same black t-shirt he was wearing at the moment along with the very same orange jacket. A forehead protector was adorned on his head and Naruto realized that the only difference between the boy and himself was the boy's eyes being a significantly darker shade of blue.

"In case you haven't realized it yet, I'm you." Oh. That explained a lot actually.

"Oh." His counterpart didn't seem put off by his and merely chuckled.

"I knew you'd say that. Know why you're here, Naruto?"

No.

"Can you remember what happened before this?"

He could remember him and Sasuke facing off against that hunter-nin. Countless senbon needles flying towards them. Sasuke jumping in the way to block an entire barrage and falling down, dead.

"That's all you need to remember." His other self said softly.

"Sasuke-that asshole-he's-"

"Dead." The other Naruto stated calmly.

He had dropped to his knees, if the sudden damp feeling on that area was anything to go by.

Sasuke was dead. The asshole died trying to save him. It was all his fault.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and saw his counterpart looked down on him, giving him a look that he could contribute to being a mix of pity and understanding.

"Yes. He died to save us."

That stubborn asshole. Why couldn't he have just not cared like everyone else?

"It would have been much easier that way." His counterpart agreed.

How could he face everyone else? Sakura-chan. Kakashi-sensei. How would they react to this?

"Definitely not well." The other boy waved his arm and the figure of Haruno Sakura was suddenly in between them.

"Sak-" He wasn't even given the chance to finish his exclamation as the pink-haired girl cut him off with a slap.

"How could you!" It was more of a shrill statement than a question. The girl continued angrily, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

"Sasuke-kun is dead because of you! I hate you, Naruto! I hate you, idiot demon!" Naruto didn't know what to say. He supposed the sound of his heart breaking should have been loud enough to serve as a response though. He opened his mouth to speak but didn't even get one word before his pink-haired teammate disappeared.

Only to be replaced with his jounin sensei, staring at him with his single accusatory eye.

"To fail a teammate in such a way," said Kakashi, his voice full of disgust, "Sasuke shouldn't have been the one to die."

Once again the figure disappeared before Naruto was given the chance to speak.

This time it was two figures that appeared. It was Iruka and the Old Man. Neither sad a word this time, instead content to simply shake their heads with a mixture of disgust and disappoint.

Something in his chest was starting to twist at that point. Even them...

"Even them." The figures disappeared and once again he stared into the darker eyes of his other self.

"Don't you see Naruto? They're all the same. They're all just like those bastard villagers." Though he didn't think it possible, his counterpart's already acidic tone grew even more hateful at the mention of the Konoha villagers.

"It was always just us." His other self went on. For some reasons the words he said really spoke to him. "From the beginning all you really had was me."

He believed him. At this point the boy staring him down was the only person he _could_ believe.

"It was just us in the beginning and it's going to be us again." The other boy placed his hands on his shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.

"Don't worry Naruto. You don't have to go through any of this anymore."

"W-Who are you?"

"I told you I'm you." The other boy gave him a twisted grin. "I'm all of that hate that you've been putting aside all of these years. I'm the one who shouldered your pain while we hoped that one day; maybe, just maybe, we'd be accepted by the bastards that rejected us."

It didn't work.

"No it didn't. That's why it's time for plan B. Come back to me Naruto. It's no longer just going to be you out there. It's going to be _us_."

The other boy grabbed him close and hugged him tightly.

"Just sleep, Naruto. It's all over now."

So he slept.

* * *

Naruto looked to the place where his Dark Self had been standing moments earlier. His counterpart was gone now. The other boy had gone inside of him and he could easily feel that his counterpart had become a part of him. His body suddenly didn't feel like just his own. He had felt something that he hadn't really ever felt before. Undying and constant _hate_. Hate towards every single person he had ever met in his entire life.

"You tricked me." He said aloud.

_I suppose I did_, a small voice in his mind said back.

"You were tricking me the entire time. You knew those weren't going to be anyone's reactions."

_No. They probably wouldn't have acted in such ways_, the voice admitted.

"You just wanted to be let out. But you didn't want to keep me in the way I did to you. So you made the two of us one again. You knew it would change me and you knew it would change you, but you had no other choice." Understanding dawned upon him, though it felt like he had this information the entire time.

_That's all correct_, he heard the voice say.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you to all this."

_It's okay_, the voice said.

"It's not. But there's no real us arguing is there? I guess it's time to show the world the real Uzumaki Naruto!" He attempted to make tone falsely cheerful but knew there was no practical use in trying to fool himself. He then turned his attention to the third member of the room they were in, who had been waiting silently during their little exchange.

"When I get out I'm going to need your power to kill that hunter-nin." The Dark Naruto in him told him what was the only course of action they could take at this point.

Kyuubi grinned maliciously.

"_**Ask and you shall receive."**_

He closed his eyes. When he opened them he was once again standing over Sasuke's dead body, staring down the porcelain mask of the fake hunter-nin who had killed his friend.

"I'm sorry to have killed your friend." The hunter-nin said in what he was most likely only imagining was an empathetic tone. Real ninja weren't empathetic. "Was he precious to you?"

What the hell kind of question was that? "Of course."

"Comrades die every day in the world of the shinobi. It's a heartless but true fact. Leave this place and bury your friend. Don't continue on this mindless trail or you will follow in his footsteps." Was he serious? Judging by his tone the answer was yes, but Naruto found it surreal that his enemy would give him the opportunity to run away after killing his teammate.

Not that he'd ever take it anyways.

"You know," he said loud enough for the enemy nin to hear, "B-before ten minutes ago I would have been completely unable to kill you. Now..."

He paused as he finally felt Kyuubi's chakra making its way through his system. Through the reflection of the mirrors he could see his eyes had changed into the color red.

"...Now I'm not gonna stop even if you scream." Then he moved, blaringly fast.

Far too blaringly fast for the hunter-nin to dodge, of course. He expected nothing less from the malevolent and dark chakra that was wildly flaring in and around him. The feeling of making contact with the mirror that held him was a good feeling. It mixed well with the adrenaline pumping through his system.

The mirror easily broke under the pressure of his chakra-intensified fist and less than a second later he held the hunter-nin's neck in his right hand. Before the enemy shinobi could move his arm he was swung around and thrown back into another mirror which, just like the previous one, easily shattered upon the impact and placed him in an area far beyond his mirror-house. The hunter-nin struggled to get up far away from the safety of his mirrors. Naruto was upon him in an instant and helped him to get up.

He was far from finished, of course.

As soon as the hunter-nin was able to stand up straight he received a fist to the stomach. Then another one. Then a roundhouse kick that once again knocked him back, temporarily free from Naruto's reach, panting and on his knees. That didn't last long at all and Naruto was once again upon his enemy in no time.

This time the other ninja attempted to block but found his arm quickly buckling under the force of the fist which attacked it, leaving him completely open for the next fist which found its way to his face, or more accurately his mask, which much like the mirrors easily shattered under the pressure. Not sparing a second, Naruto delivered another roundhouse kick which mirrored the one that he had done earlier and watched as the ninja who had killed Sasuke flew back in the same tossed rag-doll fashion he had done several times before.

This time he walked slowly to the struggling ninja that lying on his back. The fight itself had gone on long enough. It was time to finish him. The flowing red chakra around him only agreed.

_**Yes. Finish him quick**_, it said. Or rather, Kyuubi monster was most likely touching itself at the thought of its first kill in such a long time.

As he stepped in front of the unmasked hunter-nin, who struggled to get to his feet, he allowed himself a look as to his face and was surprised at what he saw.

He knew him.

Or rather _somewhat_ knew him. It really wasn't that practical to assume to know somebody after merely a single meeting. He had met the other boy during his training to prepare for the current attack they were facing. The boy had been nice and urged him to do his best in training. He had also given him some amazing advice- to never forget about his precious people, though he was somewhat unsure of that advice at the moment.

The boy, Haku if he remembered correctly, evidently noticed the recognition in his eyes and, standing up fully, he smiled the same smile he had seen the other day he met him.

"Are you going to kill me now?"

_**Yes**_, he heard Kyuubi say.

"I was going to." Naruto admitted. "Every single fibre of my being is screaming for you death." Every single fibre that was Kyuubi.

"Then shouldn't you do it? I did kill your friend after all." That was true. "And I am the enemy ninja. It's only right that you kill me."

"I guess you're right." Naruto said, though he still did not move. Haku had still not lost his smile.

"In the world of shinobi people die all the time. In the future you will do many more kills; there's no way to avoid it. It's better to start now than make a mistake that would kill you later." Those words weren't very assuring. "I'd rather you killed me now. I'm useless and weak; not the kind of tool that is worthy for Zabuza-sama. I have no purpose."

_**He wants it. You have his consent. Do it. **_

"Are-are you sure?" The old him wouldn't have done it. Dark Naruto wouldn't have hesitated. What was _he_ going to do?

Haku nodded, the very same smile never leaving his face.

So Naruto reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out one of the three he had remaining, Haku's smile of approval constantly there. The kunai felt oddly light in his hand, most likely due to the adrenaline Kyuubi was pumping throughout his system.

_**Finish her. **_

"Shut up you stupid fox." He murmured under his breath, elating a look of confusion from the long haired boy in front of him.

"N-never mind. Do you have any last words?" He somewhat hoped that it would be 'no'.

He dropped his smile momentarily and seemed to think for a bit. The small scrunching of his mouth and nose making it seem as if he was contemplating something. Finally the smile returned and he spoke:

"I'm actually really a girl." Haku admitted with a smile. Naruto's thoughts went briefly back to the day in the forest when she had said something that was the exact opposite. His thoughts were broken by the Kyuubi's shouts for blood.

Then he moved, the kunai moving as a blur with his hands.

Before it pierced her heart he saw her eyes widen for a fraction of a second and her mouth open slightly for a moment. Perhaps she was having second thoughts? The thought made Naruto sick to his stomach but he found himself unable to stop the blade as it ran through her chest and, if the slight amount of pulsating he felt was not imagined, her heart as well.

Blood had flown everywhere.

Some onto his face. Some onto Haku's.

Mostly on his arm. And her chest.

"Za...Zabuza-sama..." She choked out. Evidently _these _were her final words. "I...I'm sorry...that I...failed...you..."

Naruto watched as her breaths seemed to get more and more forced. She gave four more chokes before she stopped breathing. Her eyes had a glassy, unfocused look to them. Her skin was pale and cold to the touch. He slowly pulled back the kunai and gently placed her to the ground.

The mist had started to clear for some reason or the other at this point. He briefly chanced a glance at the other direction to see Kakashi in a similar situation with Zabuza that he himself had been in. The silver-haired jounin had his actual arm piercing directly through other man's chest. He quickly turned his attention to his own kill however. Haku's hair had lost its bun and rested all around the prone figure in a wild sort of fashion. The moonlight shone onto her face and gave her pale face a bit of a glow.

She looked strangely beautiful in his opinion.

It was all very sickening.

The fact that the Kyuubi was endlessly giving howls of appreciation and contentment only added to the nostalgic feeling.

"Sasuke-kun!" He heard Sakura yell and stiffened. It was time for another sickening scene.

Giving her own last glance he gradually turned away from the prone figure of Haku and walked toward the crouched over one of Sakura over Sasuke. It was time to see if Dark Naruto's original prediction was right or not. By the time he reached her she was sobbing against the Uchiha's fallen body. He reached out slowly for her shoulder but stopped at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Sakura..." Sasuke grunted, causing the pink-haired kunoichi to lift her head and gasp loudly. "You're heavy. Get off me."

Naruto suddenly felt a wave of relief wash through him as Sakura ignored the other boy's wishes and leapt upon him still crying but only thankfully this time.

Relief that was fairly short-lived however due to the sound of clapping and a snide weasel-y voice which echoed across the bridge.

"Well, well. Isn't this a sight," a short mousy man in a business suit said from across the other side of the bridge. An entire platoon of what had to be at least forty men stood behind him. He walked up to the dead body of Zabuza and poked him with his cane.

"I've got to thank you all for taking care of these two for me. I was going to have them killed anyways, but you saved me time."

"Gatou." He could hear Tazuna whisper fearfully. The soft whisper was like an echo on the otherwise silent bridge.

"My thanks to you all and condolences that you'll unfortunately have to join them." His voice was snide and arrogant.

Naruto and his two teammates turned their heads to their sensei questioningly. He noticed and turned his own head towards them.

"Naruto, Sakura. I'm sorry to put you two to this, but I think I'll need some backup." The jounin himself looked to be in terrible condition, his wounds from Zabuza easily visible and his breath slightly jagged.

Naruto didn't even need to think about it before he made his decision. "Take care of Sasuke." He said to Sakura before he walked up beside Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei. It's okay, just rest." He didn't even have to look to know that the jounin had a confused look on his face. It wouldn't have made a difference either; Kakashi wore a mask.

_**You want my power again, don't you? **_

He wouldn't spare anyone he told it.

_**Good, **_Kyuubi said, with no doubt a large grin on its face.

He noticed somewhat uncomfortably that everybody's eyes were on him as the flowing red chakra burst around him. It swished and swirled around him, and suddenly the air felt so much thicker. The same feeling he had when he had fought Haku had returned and he could feel the adrenaline pumping throughout his body. He placed a kunai on each hand and crouched down slightly, attempting to breath at a normal pace. It was no use; he was far too excited.

When he moved, it was carnage.

The first to fall was a boy in his late teens, perhaps three or four years older than himself, by a stab wound similar to the one that Haku took with her to her grave. He quickly pulled it out and swiped at man close by who had gone for his blade. He didn't even have time to notice any of the next ones as he had set himself in some sort of a trance. He slashed and stabbed at whoever he saw, never giving anyone time to put up any sort of a counterattack. They fell easily and after what had to have been perhaps the first ten men to die they seemed to decide to just run.

Those were the ones he targeted from that point.

More and more fell as he went on with his massacre. Most screamed. Some pleaded for their lives. A good amount was not given the chance to do either. He didn't know how much time passed by before they were all gone. Time didn't really matter for him during his rampage.

In the end he stood panting in middle of a giant mass of dead bodies, the smell of blood practically oozing into the air around them. He could practically taste it.

The Kyuubi was laughing the same way he did after he had killed Haku.

He attempted to make his way out of the bloody mass, stepping over the bloody body of Gatou. He wasn't really sure when he had killed the short man and diverted his eyes from the man and the gash on his neck. He looked up and looked into the eyes of each of his fellow members of Team 7.

Sakura looked panicky at the sudden eye contact and immediately looked away. She had a fearful expression and she tightly clutched Sasuke, who had seemed to go numb based on his lack of response at the physical contact. He looked more confused than scared. When Naruto looked into his eyes he saw something entirely different from what he had expected. Not fear or disgust. It was more like-

Jealousy? He didn't know what there was to be jealous about and assumed it was his own imagination which showed him such a thing.

He didn't bother looking at Kakashi or Tazuna. He didn't want to know what was going on in their minds.

He was standing in the middle of a sea of dead bodies. Off the corner of his right eye he saw some moaning survivors. Severed limbs were everywhere, fingers especially for some reason. He was soaked from nearly head to toe in blood. His favourite orange jacket was bloody and torn.

It was all very sickening.

* * *

Sakura looked down at the sleeping blond in front of her. Kakashi-sensei had tasked her with the job of taking care of him while he and Sasuke-kun took care of Tazuna and his fellow workers as they finished the final steps of their construction of the bridge that her team had nearly died for. The bridge that _Sasuke-kun _had nearly died for.

The bridge that Naruto killed for, a part of her mind said.

She chose to ignore it as she stared down uncomfortably at the sleeping blond. She really wished Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei would get back as soon as possible.

It had scared her when the blond ninja had suddenly started using that red chakra and went on that killing spree on Gatou's cronies. He had cut down every single one of them and ensured every single one of their deaths leaving behind a sea of blood and dead bodies. She had come fairly close to puking. The way he moved madly around them, stabbing and slicing, the blood red chakra flowing behind his every step.

The blood red chakra.

When she and Sasuke-kun had asked Kakashi-sensei about it he had said that it was Naruto's secret to tell. They had both tried to press on but he had sternly pushed them back, warning them solidly to never mention it to him again, saying that it was never his secret to share.

She had started to consider pressing it again when he got back later when she felt something at her legs wiggle.

It was Naruto. He had started to wake up.

Suddenly panic overtook her as she contemplated running away and hiding. She breathed in and out several times in order to calm her nerves and gather up all her courage. Naruto wouldn't attack her, would he? She hoped not as he pulled himself up from his slumber and rubbed one of his eyes. Then he noticed her and stared blankly. The blank stare stayed for several minutes (along with uncomfortable silence) before she broke them both.

"H-hello." She said timidly. She couldn't help her tone. Everything about Naruto just scared her at this point.

"Hello." His voice was as blank as his stare.

"So, h-how are you feeling?"

He blinked, before sighing and leaning back.

"I knew you'd react like this." He muttered. He knew? What was that supposed to mean?

"What's that supposed to mean?" She voiced her thoughts. Why'd she have to be such a vocal girl? Didn't she like having a mouth?

He gave her a solid stare.

"Look at you. You're shaking. You're stuttering, which I know for a fact you don't do around anyone except for Sasuke-_kun_, and I highly doubt you're doing it the same way to me as you do to him." He said the last part a little bitterly, she noticed with a wince. Hopefully not bitterly enough to kill her?

"You're scared of me. Scared of the monster." His bitter tone was ever-present. "Uzumaki Naruto: Konoha's very own demon."

"Naruto, I'm-" Not scared of you, she wanted to say. But she couldn't. She was.

"He was right about you." He? Who was he? "I can't trust you. I can't trust anyone." Oh, never mind. It was time for some damage-control.

"Naruto, wait." He didn't seem to notice.

"All of you, just when I needed you guys."

"Naruto-" He cut her off again, not seeming to hear.

"I knew I wasn't wanted. I-"

"Naruto, you _idiot_! _Shut up_!" It was her turn to interrupt him and she noted with a bit inner satisfaction as he winced at the shrillness of her voice. She had her attention though. That was all that mattered.

"I just wanted to say-" What did she want to say? She didn't really have much of a plan at this point so she just decided to do this by heart and say what came to mind. "I just wanted to say that I-I'm not scared of you." He looked surprised at this, if a little disbelieving, so she went on: "I'm scared of what you did out there. You just murdered that entire gang of people. I know they were trying to kill us and I understand that you were trying to defend us-Kakashi-sensei gave me and Sasuke-kun this lecture earlier-but it's just that the way you did it. With that weird, scary chakra." She shuddered for a moment at the thought of the malevolent feeling that it seemed to ooze.

"It was scary. If you did it again then I'd be scared, but right now, I'm definitely _not _scared of you." She finished, internally admiring her little monologue.

However it didn't have the effect that she had intended and Naruto simply returned to that blank stare he had given her earlier.

"I'm going back to bed." He said plainly and turned away from her.

She kind of wanted to swat him at that moment.

* * *

When Naruto had awoken next he had found Sasuke staring down at him.

"Hello." The young Uchiha said.

"Hello." The young blond returned.

"Sakura and Kakashi left with Tazuna and his family to go eat out. It's a celebratory dinner." Sasuke figured he'd be the one to break the ice.

"Why are you here?"

Sasuke shrugged.

"Somebody had to be left behind to watch you. I wasn't really that hungry so I volunteered." He didn't want to admit that he had secretly been hoping thatNaruto would wake up and he would get a chance to speak with him. He wanted to ask all the questions that Kakashi had refused to answer.

"Oh." Was Naruto's lacklustre response.

"What was that red chakra at the bridge." He blurted out. The other boy didn't look surprised at the outburst, only blinking.

"S-class secret." It was his turn to blink.

"Don't joke around, Naruto. Tell me."

"I'm not lying." The blond said defensively. "Though I could tell you if I wanted, I guess. You just can't tell anyone else, under the penalty of death." Was he joking? "Quit giving me that look, you asshole. I told you, I'm _not _joking."

"Don't call me an asshole, dumbass. Tell me then." Naruto looked slightly uncomfortable at the idea. "I'd rather not. For now at least. I'll tell you when we get back to Konoha, okay? I need to ask the Old Man if it's okay, alright?" Sasuke relented at this. He was curious but he supposed he could have a little patience.

Another topic came to his mind.

"You took out that hunter-nin didn't you? How the hell did you do what I couldn't, even with my sharingan?" He felt a fair bit of jealousy at the fact that he had failed where Naruto had succeeded.

"Uhh...It goes back to the S-class secret." The blond said somewhat apologetically.

"You're explaining _everything_ when we get back to Konoha." Naruto shrugged in response before giving a bit a scrutinizing stare.

"Aren't you scared of me or something? Or maybe disgusted with the way I killed so many of those men out there?"

What kind of stupid question was that?

"What kind of stupid question is that?" They were ninja. What was this idiot getting at? And he was definitely _not _scared of Naruto.

The idiot looked far too surprised at this response. Did Naruto _expect _him to say he was scared of him?

Before either of them could press on they were interrupted by another voice.

"Well, well Naruto. Good to see you awake and up." Kakashi's cheerful voice rang across the room.

"The food at the restaurant was delicious. We've actually brought back some for you, Sasuke. Sakura's right downstairs with it, waiting for you. Why don't you go ahead and taste some of it?" He could take a hint. Grunting, he left the room, giving one last glance to its blond occupant.

* * *

Naruto felt slightly disappointed at Sasuke's sudden departure. He had wanted to press on about the boy's lack of reaction to his question. However Kakashi stood in front of him, practically demanding his attention. Though he looked cheerful and carefree, Naruto could tell there was some serious thinking going on in his head. And he was most likely the reason for all that mental exertion.

Didn't he feel special.

"Naruto," Kakashi said in the serious tone he very rarely used, "What is your relation with the Kyuubi?"

What the hell kind of question was that?

"I'm its jailor. He's my prisoner."

"What you used yesterday, the red chakra: that was its chakra wasn't it?" He nodded at his sensei. "Are you able to call it forth by force?"

"Uhh. Kinda. I had to ask for it actually." He admitted. He didn't want to give too much information away but frankly it would probably have been suspicious otherwise.

"You can speak with it?" He said surprisingly. Shit. This was bad. He defiinetely did not want this leaked.

"It can speak. I can't speak to it." He hastily added, hoping he came off more as embarrassed or something as opposed to suspicious. He hoped he came off as anything as opposed to suspicious.

Kakashi raised his eyebrows.

"I-I can hear its mutters." He said softly. This was the truth at least, so it was easier to say. "At times, I can hear it telling me to kill. When I asked for its chakra at the bridge it told me to kill every single one of them." He really didn't want to go on at this point.

Kakashi saw that and Naruto could see him giving him a small smile through his mask.

"Don't worry about it Naruto. You did good out there." The jounin stood up and turned to leave. "Try to get some more sleep. We set out in a couple of days. The bridge should be finished by then."With those final words, Kakashi left and for the first time since the battle, Naruto found himself the sole occupant of the room, many thoughts circulating through his mind.

So he closed his eyes. When he open them he was back in the sewer passageways. He didn't take the Kyuubi passage though, instead opting for the passageway across from it. Seconds after the choice he found himself staring himself down.

"Hello." Dark Naruto said to him.

"Hello." He said in return.

"What brings you here?" His other self asked him curiously.

"Didn't we fuse or something?" He asked, ignoring the question. He wasn't really sure of the answer.

"Consider me an afterimage. I'm not the real deal, but I'm better than nothing." His Dark Self explained.

Good enough.

"So what really brings you here?" What _did _bring him here?

"I guess I just wanted to talk." He found himself admitting an answer he didn't even know he knew.

"Talking to yourself isn't healthy." Cheeky little bastard.

"You said it was just us. That all we really had was ourselves, and that nobody else cared." For a second an angry look came to his face, but it was gone just as quick as it showed.

"It _is _just us."

"No. It _was_."

Dark Naruto seemed to reel a bit at that. He just continued.

"Sakura. We thought she'd just hate me, if given the opportunity. We thought that after the stunt we pulled on the bridge she would completely fear us. We thought that she wouldn't want to be our friend anymore or even come near us out of that fear."

"She _is_ afraid of us."

"No. Not in the way you're trying to make it sound. Either way, she does _not _hate us. I can tell that for a fact."

"Don't forget what she's done to us all these years though. Those put-downs. Rejections. Insults. Being placed second to her precious _Sasuke-kun_. Have you really forgotten what she's done to us?"

"That's right. What she _has _done to us. Everything you base your opinions on is what's happened in the past! You just can't just let go of things like that, can you? What if she's trying to change?" He was getting a bit angry at this point, having sacrificed much of his individuality for his Dark Self's beliefs.

"They _never _change."

"Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. It doesn't matter. I'm still going to try." Dark Naruto gave him a disbelieving glare.

"You're going to go back to how you were earlier? You're going to go back to the old Naruto who let other people's opinions matter so much and worked so hard for _them _and not _him_?"

"That Naruto's gone now." He admitted. He could feel it inside of him; it was impossible to just 'split apart'.

"Frankly I don't know what kind of Naruto I'm going to be. I don't know if I trust any of them. And I don't know if I want to."

His Dark Self giving him a look he couldn't interpret. Confusion, maybe?

"If that's what you wish. I chose to have both of us out there and I'll stand by my decision." Dark Naruto gave an evil grin. "We'll see who's ideals will win."

He laughed at that. He really wasn't sure what else he could've done at that point.

Another thought hit him though.

"You spent the last ten years in her right? With just the Kyuubi for company?" It was one of the memories he had gained when they had come together.

"That's right."

"That must've sucked. Weren't you scared or something? Why did you talk to him so often?" He only somewhat knew the answer to that. The bastard fox was the only one Dark Naruto _could _talk to.

His answer was something entirely different however as Dark Naruto gave one of his twisted grins.

"I'm basically all your dark, terrible emotions that you've thrown away over the years up until that day on the bridge. Hatred, lust, greed. Why _wouldn't_ I get along with him?"

It was an uncomfortable thing to hear. Plus he didn't need to know he was repressing _lust_.

"So how'd you stay sane?" Oh god. That asshole better not say what he thought he was going to say.

His Dark Self only continued to grin.

"Who says I did?"

Well, goddamit.

* * *

**_A/N:_** Well now we have Gray!Naruto.

He's got Dark Naruto's emotions and memories of being trapped inside of Naruto's mind as well as Canon!Naruto's normal memories. With mixed feelings and an entirely different personality what's he going to do next?

By the way, the reason I made Haku a female was because I have yet to see a Naruto fic where Haku is introduced as a female and still dies. It was kind of a joke between me and myself (and nobody else because I have no friends ;-;)

Also: Lusty!Naruto for the win.


	2. Return Except Not Really

**Alright so, first off: Thank you for everyone who read the story thus far and enjoyed it at least somewhat. I'm always glad to receive reviews ('cause of my constant need to be an attention whore) and find advice and support for the story. It also inspired me to get chapter two done as soon as possible.**

**Originally I had an entire chapter which made itself into 16k words (no I'm serious) but I decided to cut it in half into two separate chapters for the sake of my readers' eyes and minds.**

**And on with the story:**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~lb

* * *

_**Chapter 2**_

It had only taken one more week for the construction to finally come to a finish and for the bridge to finally be completed. After one more town-wide celebration he and his team had left for Konoha. The journey was a lot shorter this time around, what with them not having the civilian Tazuna to slow them down.

It was also a lot more awkward this time around too.

Before, around eighty percent of the noise made could have been attributed to him and Sakura. However, he didn't really feel much like talking this time around. He credited that to Dark Naruto's quiet resentment of pretty much every person that they ever knew, ever. After combining he had found himself thinking in ways that he never had before. Every time Sakura asked out Sasuke around him he felt the familiar twinge of jealousy that always proceeded it, though accompanied by a flare of resentment for both the Uchiha and his crush.

He desperately wanted him to be the one to be asked by her. It was never going to happen though.

He could acknowledge that.

So he had avoided speaking to her in general, opting instead to only speak when spoken to.

Sakura seemed to recognize this after her attempts to create a conversation with the other, darker-haired male of their team. It was usually at this point that he would jump into the conversation and start talking to her, at which point she would annoyingly and begrudgingly talk back. Not before telling him off of course. When he didn't do it this time, however, she seemed to look a little lost at the lack of attention she was receiving.

She quieted down herself and fell into pace with the rest of her silent team.

Sasuke, on the other hand, didn't seem to be acting that differently at all. If the dark-haired boy noticed his teammate's little change in his behaviour than he seemed to not even care and kept his attention to his own thoughts, ignoring both of his teammates and his sensei.

Kakashi was as quiet as he usually got, having granted the entirety of his attention to his little book.

And that was the routine that they followed until they finally reached Konoha.

* * *

"Why don't you guys go home?" Kakashi suggested to his team. He had to go report to the Hokage on the mission and didn't really fancy having his genin follow him around all day.

It was then that they were each brought out of their own worlds, realizing that they were in Konoha at least. With varying reactions, the three genin bid their sensei adieu and set off to do whatever they were going to do. Kakashi acknowledged their goodbyes and quickly took himself to the Hokage's office.

He was let in without a hassle as the Third had nobody with him at the moment.

"Welcome back, Kakashi." The man greeted evenly. "I trust your mission went well?"

How to respond to this...

"We met with some troubles along the way that turned our C-Rank into a B-Rank at the very least." He figured that being blunt was the best way to go about doing this.

To his credit, the Third Hokage kept his face impassive. Though he had probably heard worse.

So he went on.

"We were attacked by the Demon Brother missing-nin pair from the mist, a girl who was probably strong enough to be at least a chunnin and A-class missing-nin, Momochi Zabuza, formerly of the Hidden Mist."

"How are your team?" The Sandaime's voice was crisp and gritty. It was no real surprise; happenings like this weren't too often a situation for a genin team fresh out of the academy.

"Sasuke is fine. In the final battle he received minimal wounds, and though at the moment they seemed fatal, he was up and walking by the next day. His performance during the mission was nothing short of spectacular. From the first battle with the Demon Brothers he was immediately on task and focused, fending them off with only a good amount of difficulty. I have a good amount of hope for him and his future."

He was proud of him. The boy had done a good job and had even (thankfully) almost given up his life to save Naruto. He could see the Third had recognized the tone, if the other man's returned smile was anything to go by.

His tone grew harder as he went on, however.

"Sakura however, is a completely different story. Though I don't really expect as much from her, I really doubt her reasons for becoming a ninja. She seems to mostly be playing along just so she can be with Sasuke. Still, she tried her best to help by constantly guarding Tazuna, though I wonder what she would have done if the enemies had gotten past myself, Sasuke and Naruto."

"Will she need to be replaced?"

"I'll give her some more time. I think it would do more harm than good to remove her at this point, considering that we've just started to get pull the team together. I will talk to her though."

Yes, he definitely would.

"And Naruto?" Ah yes. This was what the Sandaime had been most anxious to speak about.

"Naruto started off the mission a little shakily. He fell into a bit of shock during the first attack from the Demon Brothers but afterwards fought tooth and nail to keep himself and his teammates alive. There was a little problem at the bridge, however." He paused, thinking of the best way to ease into the following conversation.

"It was the Kyuubi." He chose bluntness again. The Hokage's face tensed.

"Twice during the battle he used the Kyuubi's chakra. I asked him about it afterwards and he told me that he could communicate with it and ask for its help. Its condition was to kill every single one of them."

Sarutobi grimaced. "Do we have reason to suspect the seal is breaking down?"

"I doubt it, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. Perhaps we should get it checked by a seal master?"

He received a nod in response and a combination of words which put him at least partly to ease.

"I'll call for Jiraiya immediately."

* * *

Naruto blinked several times after he woke up.

The first blink told him it was morning, if the blindingly bright rays of light were anything to go by. The second told him he was in his bedroom and, thankfully, not in the sewer-y depths of his mind which held the Kyuubi. The third told him that it was 12:05.

The fourth told him that he was late.

Jumping off his bed, he rushed to his feet and tossed on his clothes. Breakfast and bathing were both considered inconsequential at this point and ignored as he ran out the door of his apartment, and (hopefully) locking it in his haste. He hurriedly sprinted through the streets of Konoha, ignoring the stares he was getting from passersby. He was fairly used to them by now. It took him less than ten minutes to make it to his destination. That was impressive, in his opinion.

He was still late though. That was an unchangeable fact.

"You're late!" A fact that Sakura didn't hesitate to inform him of.

He looked just beyond her to see Sasuke and even, God forbid, Kakashi looking at him curiously.

"Sorry." He mumbled underneath his pink-haired teammate's rants and shouts. He didn't like it when she got mad at him.

"What held you up, Naruto?" Kakashi asked curiously after Sakura had finally stopped her barrage of words.

"I overslept." That was lame actually. He should've made an elaborate and unbelievable excuse like Kakashi always did. It would've been a bit more amusing, he supposed.

"Don't let it happen again." The jounin said lazily and, in Naruto's opinion, a good bit hypocritically.

It had been exactly four days since they had gotten back from the Wave mission and they had formed a different routine. Every day they would all get together at the time that Kakashi had told them to come at and wait for him to arrive. This wasn't much different from what they had done earlier, except for the fact that nobody talked to anybody. Unless it was Sakura to Sasuke, which he watched with silent jealousy.

When Kakashi arrived they would train together, as opposed to the onslaught of D-Rank missions they did before the mission at Wave. Kakashi had told them they would be getting the pay of an A-Rank for that mission so there was no real reason to do any more D-Ranks for a while. This was something that none of the three genin complained to.

"We're going to be sparring today." Their silver-haired sensei said to them. It was a change from the large amounts of solitary exercise he had put them through lately.

"Naruto and Sasuke. Taijutsu only. No sharingan. Winner fights Sakura." Sakura looked to be at cross on who to cheer for at that. She wanted Sasuke to win, but she didn't want to fight Sasuke obviously. Sasuke simply looked annoyed at the no sharingan rule. He, himself, looked more than eager to start the fight.

So he and Sasuke each took a position a fair bit away from each other.

"Ready. Go!" At the jounin's declaration they both moved.

He was slower than Sasuke so he was at a disadvantage. The Uchiha moved gracefully and fluidly, ensuring that each hit he made was followed by another in a seemingly perfect sequence of strikes guaranteed to succeed.

He moved like a wild animal, swiping and striking at whatever he could reach. There was no grace or movement considered, really. He just wanted to kick Sasuke's ass. Very badly.

Although that was quickly becoming a task in itself as the Uchiha simply refused to stay still. Whenever he made a strike the Uchiha would, with seemingly relative ease, dodge around it and strike back with one that he himself found a good amount of difficulty to do the same to. The battle had quickly becoming one-sided and he found that his lifeline was depending on when he got too tired to dodge further or made a sloppy mistake.

Unfortunately, what could have went wrong _did_ and he found himself on the floor after a well-placed sweeping kick at his legs knocked him over and left Sasuke towering over him, looking victorious.

Before he could follow through with a kick to wipe the Uchiha's smirk off Kakashi had declared the match finished.

"I'm not finished yet!" He growled at the jounin, who simply stared back lazily and shrugged.

"Sasuke-kun, are you injured? I have some ointment I brought for bruises." Naruto suddenly felt a familiar flare of resentment to the Uchiha (and Sakura as well, he supposed) as Sakura coddled around the dark-haired boy. He really, _really _wanted to break his face in, regardless of whether or not the asshole saved his life earlier.

Tearing his jealous glares away from the two, he walked over to his sensei.

"I could've won that."

"I'm sure you don't believe that."

What was that?

The jounin sighed and looked him straight in the eye. "Sasuke is superior to you in terms of taijutsu. He's been training nearly his entire life in the ninja arts, he's had private tutors, and he's worked hard to get the level of skill he has today. You don't expect to just beat him like that, do you?"

Goddamn private tutors. Why'd Sasuke get all the breaks?

A wonderful idea hit him.

"Kakashi-sensei," he said, hoping to God that he would receive a yes in response, "Can I-Would you teach me taijutsu?"

The jounin looked at him peculiarly at that. So he went on.

"Sasuke's had tutors his entire life to help with that stuff. I, on the other hand, didn't really get jack shit from anyone and far as I was concerned, I didn't really want anything. I'm asking for help now though." I really want to kick his ass, he wanted to add.

"Sasuke's going to get jealous if I start exclusive training with you. Sakura's going to feel left out as well. I really don't want to make trouble for myself."

_It's always about Sasuke_, he heard a part of him say bitterly.

"But since you _did_ go through the trouble of asking me and are actively seeking methods to improve yourself, I suppose I can arrange something."

He could not have been more pleasantly surprised by those words.

Kakashi continued. "I have a friend who can help you. He's a powerful fighter and even better than me at taijutsu. If you want I can arrange for you to meet up with him after our regular group training sessions."

Better than Kakashi? Sasuke was getting his ass kicked for sure now.

"I have to warn you though...He's a bit of an oddity. His name is..."

* * *

"Maito Gai! The Beautiful Green Beast of Konoha." The green-clad, bushy eyebrowed man gave him a smile as white as paper and struck some sort of a pose, involving a thumbs-up hand sign.

Naruto was a bit surprised that _this_ man was supposed to be stronger than Kakashi at taijutsu.

The man was a bit of an eccentric. Scratch that. The man was _a lot _of an eccentric.

"Gai-sensei!" A boy, dressed in a similar green jumpsuit to Gai, shouted. The boy was a member of the three man team that guy lead.

"Lee!" His name was Lee.

Naruto turned his gaze to the other two members.

Tenten seemed to be a competent kunoichi, if the kunai she kept tossing and playing around with said anything. Neji was the team's very own Sasuke. Although he seemed to be even more contemptuous and self-righteous. If that was possible. However he had to put up with it. Kakashi had arranged for him to meet up with them after group training was done and judging by the consequences he had mentioned for him if he quit really quick, the jounin had sacrificed something of a good amount of value to do so.

"Naruto, my rival's youthful student!" He immediately gave Gai his full attention. "You will be training with specifically myself and Lee in the youthful art of taijutsu!"

Naruto nodded, attempting to look enthusiastic.

How bad could it be?

Evidently terrible, if the large number of bruises Lee had given him had anything to say about it.

The spandex-wearing boy evidently did not know how to hold back. That was for certain. Of course, it was at least partly his fault considering the taijutsu style had chosen.

"I am adept with many different forms of taijutsu." Gai had said seriously to him. The first few serious words he had heard from him since meeting him. "There are many to learn from and I must first know, how do you wish to fight?"

How did he...?

Was he trying to ask which style he wanted to learn?

"I'd like to learn your style, I guess."

Gai gave him a hard stare.

"The strong fist," he said, with no small amount of seriousness, "Is a form that is meant to destroy the body of the enemy and break bones. It must be used by physically powerful shinobi with high endurance and stamina." Break bones? Oh God yes.

"I want to learn it." He made sure to make his voice seem as determined as possible.

Gai gave him a wide smile. "Alright! Uzumaki Naruto, you are hereby from this point on: my new protégé!"

So long as he didn't have to wear a jumpsuit he was more than happy with those words.

At least, those were his thoughts before he was pitted up against Lee, who had become his 'training partner'. Honestly, in his opinion, the pair just liked tossing people around.

"You okay there, new guy?"

He turned to see Tenten setting herself down beside him in interest. She was nice. The only one in Team Gai that didn't look down on him or beat him to a bloody pulp.

"Yeah." He sighed. "Though I don't know if I'll be able to say that by the end of the week, what with training with the Sadist Duo."

She laughed at that. That was nice. He made a girl laugh. This was all going very smoothly.

"You'll get used to it. They're ridiculous and they work themselves, and everyone around them, to death but they're really pretty likeable."

"When I see the likeable side I'll let you know." She grinned and leaned in.

"So why're you here, new guy?" Evidently she liked to gossip. Though this really wasn't that big of a secret.

"Training."

She looked a little ticked at his answer.

"You've got your own sensei." And she could get snarky too.

"He can't deliver, so he set me up with someone who could."

"There's no real point." We both turned our heads to the direction of the new voice.

"One can't hope to go against his destiny. Being weak is something fate won't let _you_ change." Oh wow. That Neji guy was really asking for an ass-kicking.

Unfortunately it would've been bad behaviour to assault one of Gai's students.

"We'll see about that." So he settled for a really lame comeback instead.

The other boy gave him a superior sneer and walked off.

Naruto looked at Tenten pointedly.

"Uhh. No, he's not _always_ like that." She mumbled, as if sensing his question.

He'd just avoid him then.

The next two months passed with the new addition of training with Team Gai to his routine. It was useful of course. He knew that he was getting better and better with his taijutsu. He based that on the fact that he was making it more and more increasingly difficult for Sasuke to defeat him during their taijutsu-only spars. Several times he had come very close to winning and in their most recent spar he had tied with the Uchiha.

It wasn't the face-breaking he had originally wanted to give his rival, but he was coming close.

Additionally he was finding himself more and more comfortable with Team Gai (excluding Neji). He found Lee and Gai much more approachable than his own team. He had given them a clean slate when he had met them and so far they had kept it clean. Tenten, especially, he found himself able to be around easily. She in return had been fairly glad for the new company, having only had the over-active Lee and the arrogant Neji to speak to.

He had made new friends. His training was going along splendidly. The Kyuubi hadn't talked to him in months. He had found himself a whole lot less dark and cynical.

Team Gai was the best thing to happen to him for months.

The only thing that could've made his life a little better would've been if they'd get an actual mission instead of this returning onslaught of D-Ranks.

In a way it was practically asking for trouble, but he decided to voice his thoughts the next time his team met with the Hokage.

"Naruto, are you serious?" Iruka had all but shouted the question at them and suddenly he felt a sense of déjà vu.

"It's just that we've been doing D-Ranks for a month!" He said defensively. "I mean, if we can handle a mission good enough to be an A-Rank, then I'm sure we deserve our first _actual_ C-Rank."

Iruka once again looked like he was going to protest further but the Third cut him off.

"If that's what you wish. I think we have the mission for you, Naruto."

He was pretty sure the surprise that had overtaken his face was mirrored by his team.

"It's a delivery mission of sorts. You will take medicine to a village located a good distance north from here. This will be a joint mission and another genin team will be accompanying you on this. Do you accept this mission?" The last part was directed towards Kakashi who, noticing the pointed stares of his two male students, sighed.

"I suppose we do, Hokage-sama."

* * *

Hinata looked carefully over her belongings for what had to be the hundredth time.

Or maybe two hundredth. She really wasn't counting anyways.

She had to be prepared and ready though. It was her team's second C-Rank mission and she really didn't want to be an inconvenience. During the last C-Rank Shino had done most of the work and Kiba had helped greatly as well. She herself had contributed as well, but she felt it to be so insignificant compared to her allies' accomplishments. Hinata had promised herself that she wouldn't be dead weight this time around.

Plus Naruto-kun would be there. She really didn't want to look weak in front of him.

Her heart gave one of those cliché flutters that one would read about in a romance novel at her crush's name. She really liked him.

So she'd rather not look like a weakling in front of him.

With that though in mind, she rushed out of her house, opting not so say goodbye to her father and sister. She had said it less than an hour ago so there was no point in repeating herself.

When she reached the Hokage's Tower, their meeting place of choice, both Shino and Kurenai-sensei were there. She greeted them both and both gave their own greetings back. Kiba arrived not too long after her and soon enough the entire team was there.

All that was left was Team 7 to arrive.

Sakura was the first from the other team. She greeted them all evenly and fell silently into waiting for her teammates. Then Sasuke came, who didn't bother to greet anybody and instead stood silently against a wall, ignoring Sakura's attempts to make conversation. Then they waited for the other two members of Team Seven.

They waited for a whole hour. Then two.

Then Naruto arrived. His normally messy blond hair had a slightly wet and subdued look to it, indicating that he had just showered minutes before. His signature orange jacket, which she had remembered he didn't go a day without in the academy, was gone and instead he wore a black t shirt coupled with his usual orange pants. His pack was slung behind him in a messy fashion. It was easy to tell he had made it in haste. Despite his messy appearance, she couldn't help but swoon a bit at the sight of him.

She desperately hoped that went missed by everyone else.

Upon reaching the meeting place, Naruto looked around each of the faces curiously before giving them a sort of twisted grin.

"I knew you guys wouldn't leave without me."

Sakura looked like she was about to say something but Kiba had beat her to it.

"You asshole! Don't waste our time by coming late!" Kiba was _really _looking forward to the mission. He hadn't stopped talking about it ever since he had gotten it.

She really wished he wouldn't call her Naruto-kun names though.

"I overslept. Big deal. It happens." The other boy replied lazily in a way that was very much _unlike _him.

"That is not a good habit for a shinobi." Kurenai-sensei told him with a frown.

He looked at her curiously, most likely because it was the first time he had seen her.

"Sorry, I guess." He offered to her. Kurenai only continued to frown.

"What's the deal with you, Naruto?" Her Inuzuka teammate asked with a confused expression on his face. "You're not acting like your usual self."

Kiba had a point. Naruto-kun _wasn't_ acting like himself.

Naruto blinked in response.

"Sorry," he said finally, "I've been a bit out of it lately, I guess." Nobody pressed him for details.

She wanted to of course. But she was much too timid.

A fact that she silently cursed herself for.

She was given a perfect opportunity to, at the very least, _speak_ to him. But she couldn't.

Something held her tongue for some reason. Most likely her shy attitude.

Naruto fell into pace with everybody else's silent formation as they waited for the final member of Team Seven to arrive. The man, Kakashi as Kurenai had told them, arrived a good half an hour later.

"You're late." Kurenai told him flatly. "You promised me you wouldn't be."

"See I have a really good reason though this ti-"

"Save it." She sighed. "Let's get moving."

Kurenai was mumbling something about sensei's influencing students as they traveled up to the Hokage's office. When they reached inside the office the first thing that they all noticed was the stack of fairly large boxes sitting off to the side. They looked small enough for one person to carry though, albeit with a good amount of difficulty. There were five in total.

"These are the packages containing the medicine. I'd like you all to be fairly careful with these. They won't break so easily but it doesn't hurt to be careful right?" He looked over specifically at Naruto.

The blond noticed this and glared back at the Third.

He muttered something about proved untrusting old geezers wrong before putting his hands together in odd sort of shape. A hand-seal evidently, based on the chakra that seemed to weave around him as he did so. Seconds later, five more Narutos stood beside him. Each with gave the Hokage a pointed glare and walked up to pick up a box.

Her entire team was surprised to see that the clones were corporeal and were actually able to pick up the boxes. It was amazing to see such a technique yet she felt it was very appropriate that Naruto be the one to know it.

Kurenai –sensei looked especially surprised and gave Kakashi a questioning look, to which he only shrugged. His team evidently were unsurprised by this development so it didn't seem like it was something new. The Sandaime told them that the caravan was waiting at the main gate for them so they headed out in that direction.

The caravan they saw was fairly small for a caravan but big enough to fit the medicine boxes well.

It was also big enough for two people to push by themselves, a job that nobody really wanted to do as excuses were made left and right.

"Naruto. Naruto should do it!" Kiba finally declared, and for once the majority agreed.

"The hell? I'm the most useful one for when an enemy attacks! If anything, _you_ should do it, dog boy!" The two glared at each other.

"Naruto, you _were _late. From what I heard." That had to have been the excessive scolding that Kurenai was giving him for his and Naruto's behaviour on the way to the gate.

"...Are you fucking with me?" Naruto gaped at his sensei. She too understood the hypocrisy of the jounin's words.

"Nope." The silver—haired man's tone was cheerful and non-negotiable.

"Fine. My Kage Bunshins will do it."

"Whoa there, Naruto. We don't want any sort of chakra exhaustion on your part. We'll just pair you up with someone else." Naruto shrugged, evidently not minding if someone else suffered with him.

The previous argument had restarted at this point. Everybody was trying to push the job on everybody else. At that point she got an idea.

"I-I'll do it." She offered. Everyone turned their gazes in surprise to look at her.

"I mean if nobody else will, then I can. We really should get going." She said hastily, her cheeks burning a bit. She really hoped that would be a good enough of a save.

"Hinata that's a very kind and selfless offer," Kurenai-sensei said with a smile, "But it would be more useful to have you ready and able to use your byakugan to scout around when we need it." She paused and looked to her team. "Shino will do it."

And that was the end of that.

* * *

Naruto was really finding this mission to be a bigger pain in the ass than the D-Ranks. At the very least would be finished within perhaps an hour or two at max. _This _however was most likely going to take a week, perhaps two (he didn't really care to inquire). They'd reach the village before the end of the day though, most likely. It wasn't that far out, if he had been looking at the map correctly at least.

He turned his attention to the boy pushing briskly with him. The caravan was heavy he supposed but all the training he did with Gai was really helping. He decided that he would thank the spandex-wearing jounin next time he saw him.

If he didn't die of boredom before that.

Honestly, could the mission really get any _more _boring?

No attacks. No action. No new people.

He really wasn't that fond of this mission.

But he made sure not to voice his protests, instead opting to silently fume.

And that was how he had spent the voyage to the Kohaku village. It was long and boring, and Naruto found himself constantly wishing for some missing-nin to attack, but they had made it before the day ended. His prediction was accurate at the very least.

When they had arrived at the village gate they were all greeted by a man, who introduced himself as Kimura Teuchi, the village's head doctor.

"I'm glad that you all have arrived safely. We've been waiting so long for this and we cannot thank you enough." He bowed his head very low. The man had absolutely ecstatic when they had arrived. His eyes had lit up so bright that Naruto thought he probably could've used them as flashlights.

Which would've been kinda cool, now that he thought about it.

"Thank you. We hope to make ourselves as useful as we can." He heard Kurenai say. She was a pretty responsible and dependable jounin sensei. He had always assumed that all the other jounins would be like Kakashi, but apparently he was wrong.

Teuchi thanked them four more times before leading them off to the hospital, caravan in tow. The town streets were large enough for them to pull the mobile storage room with ease.

The town itself however was remarkably...depressing.

It almost exactly mirrored Wave, when he thought about it. The streets were fairly empty, with very few passersby, all of whom looked to them suspiciously. Many shops looked to be long-since abandoned, some even slightly torn down. Sometimes when they passed by some houses, he could see people looked out in a similar suspicious fashion to the people that passed them in the streets.

Had the people in this village never seen ninja before?

He decided to voice his question to Teuchi, who looked a bit flustered at first but answered after thinking on it for a bit.

"A...A little while ago, this town was attacked by some shinobi. Most likely missing-nin from your village." He put on a grim expression before going on. "They were brutal. They killed, stole and raped. Whatever and whoever they could get their hands on they took."

The two teams had gotten a bit quiet after the story.

And they had stayed that way until they had reached the hospital where Teuchi had worked at. At his instruction, they carried in the boxes containing the medicines to a storage room. Afterwards they had all met up with the good doctor at the lobby.

Naruto suddenly noted the large quantities of people that were waiting in the lobby. He could see a good two or three dozen people looking at him suspiciously and some even a little bit hatefully. It wasn't that new of a feeling to him but he could see some of his allies getting a little uncomfortable.

_The bright side of being a village-wide pariah_, he heard a familiar voice in his head say.

He almost laughed at that, if he didn't consider it to be so tasteless.

* * *

"Go around town and inform people of the new medicine available." Those were Naruto's instructions.

For some reason he got the really, really boring job.

Hinata, Kiba and Shino were sent around the area around the village as scouts to see if there were any nearby dangers or some shit like that. Sakura and Sasuke were back at the hospital helping to prepare the medicine with Teuchi. Kakashi and Kurenai were each off doing their own thing.

He was stuck spreading the word.

It was actually pretty demeaning. Going around to houses and informing them of the new medicine available. It was like he was a goddamn salesman.

But he did it. He had asked for the mission and there was no sense in complaining now.

Is this what C-Rank missions are actually like, he had thought to himself after completed what had to be at least eighty percent of the houses in the entire goddamn village.

He suddenly missed having A-Rank missing-nins attack him.

"Get out of our town, shinobi!" He barely dodged a barrage of pebbles that came at him from behind. It was a group of annoying kids attacking him. Correction, it was _the _group of annoying kids attacking. The same group that had been following him around all day.

All. Freaking. Day.

It being the fourth time, and Naruto thinking that he had already shown enough lenience, he gave a loud growl and charged at the kids. They all gave their own separate shrieks and headed in separate directions. He decided to go after the one that had seemed like the leader.

Of course being ten times faster he had reached the kid in no time flat and soon enough had him held upside down in the air by his ankle.

"Leggo of me!" The kid was surprisingly light. And he squirmed. Naruto had to hold him at full arm's length to avoid the kicks and punches the kid made at him.

"Apologize."

"No!"

"Then you're just going to have to get comfortable."

"L-Let go of me, you jerk!"

"Apologize."

"No."

"I said-"

"Let go off him!" An older, more feminine voice yelled.

The owner was a brunette with extremely dark eyes.

"I said let go!" She repeated.

"He attacked me," he said plainly, "Why should I?"

"Because you're older and you're a ninja." He supposed they were somewhat valid reasons and let the kid down. Not gently, of course.

The young dark-haired boy scowled at him and ran to the woman, hiding behind her.

"Go home, Sasuke." Sasuke? Now _that _explained a lot.

The boy stuck his tongue out at him one more time before running off. What an annoying brat.

"Why were you attacking my brother?" The girl was upon him in an instant. Evidently, she was the dark-haired boy's sister.

"Hi, I'm Naruto. It's good to meet you too."

"Why were you attacking my brother?" She repeated, obviously annoyed by his sarcasm.

"He attacked me first," he said defensively.

About four times, he wanted to add.

She only glared.

"That doesn't give you the right to attack him back!"

"Why not!"

"He's smaller!"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." He didn't really want to get into a shouting match with the girl

She looked a bit put off at this, as if she wanted to nag him further, but relented.

"I suppose I'm sorry for Sasuke's actions as well. He's only young and you _are _a ninja so you have to forgive him."

He didn't _have _to, but he didn't say that.

"It's fine. I should have held back my temper." There was no point in not being friendly back to the girl who was actually trying.

"I'm Kane." He introduced himself as Naruto once again.

Kane was a seventeen year old girl who lived with her mother and brother only. Her father had died in the last shinobi attack about seven years ago. She worked as a volunteer nurse at the hospital where Teuchi worked. When he asked about him she immediately brightened.

"He's such a wonderful man! Our townspeople have so much to thank him for. He's been so great to us all these years." She went on to describe his various achievements, his likes, dislikes and so much more. The amount of information that she had on the man couldn't be considered legal, could it?

They had actually ended up getting along surprisingly well, despite their not-so-pleasant first meeting. They met up several more times after that. Naruto didn't mind, Kane being the only person in the town that didn't hate or fear him on sight. She seemed to like his company and had told him that she had not had many people her age to talk to in the past. They made conversations on whatever they could, which evidently was everything. The girl had a big mouth on her, he found. She was similar to him in that aspect.

"My mother's really sick," she said to him one day, "The medicine you guys brought is hopefully going to help her. Along with hopefully the rest of the village."

"Is there some sort of village-wide disease going on?"

"Yes."

"Is that why the town's so empty?"

"That's a different story. This town isn't exactly the luckiest place to live in. Aside from the sickness that just overtook us, we've had to face many different hardships in the past."

"Like the shinobi attack?" Her clouded over with something akin to absolute hatred at the mention of it. It took him a moment to recognize that the hatred wasn't directed towards him.

"It was a terrible night. I was only ten when it happened. It was the most horrible night of my life. The shinobi just burst into town and started looting and killing left and right." She paused and seemed to choke a bit before saying the next part of her story. "They broke into our house and s-slit dad's throat in front of us. Mother jumped at them and tried to fend them off but that only spurred them on. Then they...then they raped her. Right in front of me."

She was crying at that point. He didn't know what to do. Crying women weren't really his specialty.

"I was too young to understand it at the time." She continued tearfully. "I just knew that they were hurting my mommy and I didn't want them to. I kept yelling for them to stop and eventually one of them hit me hard enough to knock me out."

At this point she had broken down and stopped making coherent words, instead sobbing into her hands.

He suddenly felt like an ass for bringing the subject up.

It took a while for her to compose herself, to his discomfort but she after a bit of time she was herself again, albeit a little sniffly.

"Sasuke," she muttered, "He was born nine months after that incident."

People said he was a really dense person. He wasn't _that_ dense.

He still didn't know what to say though.

"Oh."

"You don't have to say anything. In fact, don't _ever _say anything about this topic to _anyone_." She looked at him seriously.

"I promise." He kept his promises.

She smiled half-heartedly at him.

"Thank you for listening."

Wiping her eyes one last time, she got up from the bench they had been seated on.

"That's enough crying! I've got to get to the hospital now. I'll see you there, Naruto-kun!"

"For sure." He gave her a grin and waved her goodbye.

* * *

Umako Sashi looked amongst his men. The past few weeks hadn't been great for him. Their previous attempts to take over the territory of other bandit bands had gone terribly. They had actually lost more territory than they had gained during that time because of the other bands startling decision to hire missing-nins.

Every fucking body was hiring missing-nins now. It really pissed him off.

He himself had only four ninja in his band, just to his luck. That coupled with the good fifty men that followed him was normally good enough to take care of whatever problem stepped their way. However when that problem included other ninja everything just seemed to go out of control. When things got out of control his mood would get out of control

However there was still something that would put his mood back into the happy place it once was.

That was good old pillaging and plundering.

And they just happened to have the perfect village in their sights.

* * *

"Oye, Daisuke. Go gather up the others. We leave tomorrow."

His ever-present minion nodded and set about to do as ordered.

"Why don't you take your worthless ninja asses and get the hell out of my town?"

"S-Sir, please. It'll only be a little while longer before Teuchi-san will see you." Despite Hinata's attempts to calm the man down he only went on about worthless ninjas and where they should take their asses.

It was a pattern with many of the older men and woman. The ones old enough to be grandparents, to be exact. They would constantly insult whoever it was they saw was wearing a headband. It was annoying and frustrating but the ninjas couldn't do anything about it.

They had a mission, after all.

"Please, Kyoko-san. I promise you that Teuchi-san will see you in a minute." The voice of Kane interrupted them and soon enough the brunette was beside the old man, calming him down.

Hinata really disliked her. Out of jealousy, of course. Considering that the brunette had spent more time with Naruto-kun in the last week than she had her entire life, she thought it was only fair.

When Kane looked back at Hinata, her face was plain. She didn't really like any of the ninjas.

"Please don't rile him up too much. He can't afford to be yelling at this age. I have to go home now, so please be responsible." The dark-eyed girl then walked away, ignoring her protests.

She really disliked her.

Then she had to go back to the whining of Kyoko-san as he told her how she should be more like Kane.

She disliked the mission in general.

Finally, after she had finished wheeling the geezer off to the doctor's room, she walked straight back to the lobby and promptly sat down on one of the seats.

"I hate this mission," she mumbled.

"Tell me about it." She heard the person sitting next to her murmur.

When she turned to see who it was her heart almost skipped a bit. It was Naruto, looking just about as sullen as her, if not more. He was talking to her! She could've given out a shout of joy.

However she composed herself. She had been waiting for this opportunity all week. Best not to waste it.

"Y-Yeah." That was it? _That _was the best she could do?

"H-How's your week been, Naruto-kun?" That was good!

He gave her a shrug.

"Pretty terrible, give or take. Though from what you said earlier I'm guessing I'm not the only one whose week sucked?" He gave her an understanding grin.

She giggled a bit at that. Not because it was all that funny, but because she was really giddy that she was conversing with her Naruto-kun!

"It's been bad for me too," she said, before realizing that she was sounding very uninteresting. "Our last C-Rank mission was a lot better." She added in haste, hoping she still had her interest.

"Oh? Why don't you tell me about it?" He was curious! Yes! The perfect opportunity she had been waiting for. She was going to converse with Naruto. There was no way this moment could be ruined!

"Bandits! Bandits are attacking!" A man exclaimed, rushing in.

...She really shouldn't have tempted fate.

Naruto was on his feet in a moment's notice, immediately questioning the man.

After they had gotten their information, Naruto turned his attention to her.

"Do you know where everybody else is?" The urgency in his voice immediately

"K-Kurenai-sensei is upstairs with Kakashi-san and Teuchi-san. Shino-kun and Kiba-kun went to go get something to eat. Sakura-san is on the other side of the hospital. I...I don't know where Sasuke-san is."

"Go find Kakashi and Kurenai." He ordered. "Tell them the situation. Tell Sakura on the way if you can. I'm gonna go and check things out on the outside."

She didn't even get a chance to nod as he ran out the door of the hospital.

She found herself frozen for nearly a minute before she snapped out of it and sprinted off into the direction of the stairs. She met Sakura on the way but didn't stop in front of the puzzled girl, instead dragging her by her arm right up to Teuchi's room. She burst into the room and shouted at the top of her lungs for Kurenai-sensei and Kakashi-san.

Both turned towards her, as did Teuchi-san and old Kyoko who looked annoyed at the interruption.

"Bandits! They're attacking the town!"

Kurenai and Kakashi both exchanged a looked before immediately barking orders.

"Hinata, tell us exactly what happened."

She did.

"Do you have an account of where everyone is at the moment?"

She told them what she had told Naruto. And then she told them Naruto had run off.

Kakashi swore a bit before announcing his orders.

"Hinata, Sakura, protect the hospital. We're going to go out and see what's going on."

"We'll send people who need shelter her for refuge so be prepared." Kurenai added. Kakashi nodded, agreeing to the plan.

"If we see any of the boys we'll send them back to you."

After Kakashi's last statement they both disappeared from the room.

* * *

**_A/N: _**That's right. I'm introducing my own cliché filler-plot into the fanfic. What're you gonna do about it? :|

Naw but seriously. This little side-plot is just my little chance to practice my hand at OCs and fight scenes and stuff. I am only a beginner and all so you can't really blame me for wanting to get some more practice. I'll hope that it's interesting at least and I'll tell you that the next chapter is the only other chapter having to do with this arc of mine.

And before you guys read on I thought I'd let you guys know that this most likely will not be a pairings story; at least not this early on. I'd say you're going to have to wait a little while before I introduce an actual relationship into the story. It probably won't be NaruHina though. I don't really care much for Hinata's character at this point and unless I change that then no-can-do. Or NaruSaku because of the same reasons. Though that's not to say that either of those pairings will _never _happen. I'm just saying that I'd like to get in some good old fashioned character and plot development before I even consider romance. Even then I think I might not, considering I've seen all to many fanfics get ruined for me by introducing a romance that is neither realistic nor likeable.

There will be unrequited love however, as you will see in this chapter. Too often have I seen Naruto simply fall out of love with Sakura as soon as one simple thing happens to change his life (followed by the cliché 'meeting-another-female plan'?). I doubt he's going to get together with her in this story, or even actively attempt to go out with her as he did in Canon, but there's definitely going to be some good old bitter one sided crush going on in here.

Also: I'm releasing this as a double chapter update 'cause I love everybody. You can pay me back with feedback for each ahah.

...I was trying too hard with Kane wasn't I?


	3. And Then There Were Bandits

**This is actually a double-chapter update and if by any chance you haven't read chapter two I strongly recommend that you do. If only because that's the only true way most of this will make sense to you.**

**I'd like it if I could get some feedback and if you see any errors in either chapter then please let me know. I don't like spelling/grammar errors messing up my work . It's already messed up enough ;-;**

**And no I do not know why I love making characters fucked up mentally. It's probably a Hollywood thing. Goddamn Hollywood.**

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* * *

_**Chapter 3**_

Immediately after Naruto had run out the door he had ran into some large, fairly intimidating men with katanas who were attempting to rob a local store owner or his possessions.

He did the smart thing and promptly kicked their asses.

It wasn't even that hard. They were pretty slow compared to Gai and Lee. And weak too, if the fact that one blow each had knocked them out was any sort of indication.

After he had finished them off, he continued running in the same direction he had been earlier. There was somewhere he had to get to. He had to make sure that a certain someone was safe. In his urgency he had even dropped the weights that Gai had given him somewhere along the way.

He didn't really care about training his muscles at that point and was more than happy to take off the heavy burden.

An idea hit him as soon as he had done so though.

Making his hands into the familiar cross hand-seal he concentrated his chakra and soon a good fifty Narutos stood beside him awaiting his orders.

"Spread out. Kick ass. Find Kane." Those were his orders.

* * *

"Damn it, Shino! Why the hell can't you admit that dogs are the superior species?" Akamaru gave a bark of agreement for his master's words.

"Because they are not. My _kikaichu _are the superior species. They are capable of so much more than you give them credit for."

Kiba growled at his friend. It was an old fight that they had every so often. Which could be easily solved if Shino just admitted that dogs were in every way superior to bugs.

Before he could press on a scream had caught their attention.

They both immediately ran out of the dango stand, argument forgotten. What they saw, beyond the dozens of townspeople running the opposite direction, was a blonde woman laughing rambunctiously with a group of men standing behind her.

At her feet lay a dead man with a kunai stabbed through his head.

It was a sight that almost made him throw up his far too recent lunch.

But he swallowed it back and stepped forward, looking at the woman directly in the eye, and noting the forehead protector with the scratched mark over it. It wasn't the Konoha symbol though. She noticed him and Shino and immediately narrowed her eyes.

"Leaf-nin?" She hissed. However she kept her composure and then made an action that nearly made Kiba reconsider his decision to hold down his lunch. She grabbed the kunai that was lodged in the dead man's head and lifted it out, and then pointed it at them.

"Get them!" She barked.

* * *

Kakashi and Kurenai looked between themselves and then at the two missing-nins standing in front of them.

The two shinobi didn't look that dangerous, but it never hurt to be careful, so they stayed on their guard.

"Well, well. Copy-Cat Ninja Kakashi and Genjutsu Mistress Kurenai. Aren't we lucky? The bounties on your heads will keep us happy for a while."

Kakashi grimaced, and then spoke.

"Kurenai, go and find everyone else."

The other jounin nodded and made to move away in the other direction.

Only to jump back at a rainfall of kunai placed where she was going to step.

A third person was walking towards them in the opposite direction.

"Guess you'll just have to fight it out." One of the enemy ninjas said cheerfully.

* * *

Hinata and Sakura looked at the man who stood in front of them warily. He was a ninja. That much was obvious. Based on his forehead protector he was from the Sand Village.

He looked between them and sighed.

"You two really should get out of the way. I don't want to harm women, regardless of if they're ninja or not."

They both shook their heads and the man frowned, and then shrugged.

"Your call, really."

And then he charged at them.

* * *

Sasuke looked around at the rough looking men who had surrounded him.

"You're a ninja, right?" The leader of the good dozen or so men said to him. He was a gruff looking man and had several scars on his face.

He didn't answer, knowing that his headband told it all.

"Sorry but we can't really let ya live. You'll probably 'cause trouble for us."

The men all started to draw their weapons.

* * *

He saw himself finding her in the grasps of a red-haired man and his entourage, at a park not too far from her home. He told them to let her go. They were bandits, he knew. They had told him of the fact and warned him to back off. However they quickly noticed his headband and surrounded him. He tensed.

"Whoa there, kid. Slow down a bit." The red-headed man said lazily. "You wouldn't really want anything to happen to your friend here, would you?" He held a kunai against her neck to emphasize his point. Kane only whimpered in fear.

The man smirked at the murderous expression on his face.

"Daisuke!" He barked and a smaller, thinner man immediately jumped to attention and lined himself beside him.

"Yes, Umako-sama!"

"Take her," he said as he tossed the struggling Kane to the smaller man, who despite his size was still more than strong enough to hold her down, "And pass me my sword, would you?"

The man grabbed a very thin blade that was strapped to his back, one of three, and tossed it to the man, Umako, who caught it with no trouble.

The man grinned and waved the blade around a bit before aiming it at him.

And then stabbing him in his eye.

The last thing he saw was the sharp point of the blade as it ran through his head.

And those were the memories that had found himself into his head. He had to blink several times and touch his face several more times to realize he wasn't horribly disfigured.

It was his shadow clone's memories, he deducted. A shadow clone that had just recently died, while Kane was held captive.

He ran towards where his memories told him she was.

* * *

The blonde woman looked between the two shinobi and scowled. It was a natural reaction, as the four men that had been traveling with her had been easily taken out by the pair.

"You brats aren't half-bad," she said snidely.

"Wish we could say the same to your pals." Kiba shot back. Akamaru loyally barked to help him emphasize that point.

"Don't I get names to match the pretty little heads I'm going to be hanging on my wall?" She ignored his barb.

The boy gave her a feral, wild sort of grin and looked more than happy to oblige to his request.

"The name's Inuzuka Kiba! This is my partner Akamaru and Aburame Shino! We're going to be kicking your ass today, just to let you know."

She laughed at that, which led to Kiba getting more pissed off.

"Hey, Shino. I think I can handle this one myself. Stay back and watch for a bit, will you?"

"Negative. It's best that we act as a team." Kiba glared at the other boy's response and looked like he was going to argue a bit more. One more look from Shino told him it was hopeless to do so.

He sighed and looked back at the woman.

"Kiboyaki." She said, to the two genins' puzzlement.

"It's only fair that the last name you hear before you die is that of your killer."

She grinned a grin similar to Kiba's and threw her kunai at him.

He dodged it, of course. With relative ease, one might add.

He looked back at the woman with a 'did-you-really-think-that-would-hit-me' look.

Kiboyaki only grinned further and threw six more kunai, all of which missed easily.

"She's pretty fucking weak." He mumbled to Shino. "Maybe we should go easy on her?"

Instead of receiving a laugh, or the silent agreement he had expected from his friend, he was tackled to the floor by the Aburame. He immediately pushed the smaller boy off, baring his teeth.

"What the _fuck_ Shino?"

Shino only pointed forward to a site that made Kiba make a mental note to thank his friend later.

The two of the kunais from earlier were floating in front of the woman. That wasn't right. They were supposed to be behind him, weren't they?

"She uses some sort of jutsu to move around the kunai she throws. Keep your eyes open for the other five."

Kiboyaki pouted.

"How'd you realize I was using chakra strings?"

"Your attempt to trick us into thinking that your throws were useless was a clever ploy, but poorly executed. The accuracy of your shots dropped by more than half the strength you showed us from the first shot. A missing-nin who survived this long outside of Sand could not have such poor aim."

She only shrugged, unimpressed.

"So you're the master of deduction. Big deal, you'll still die. I haven't really shown you my greatest trick, have I?"

She blared through a series of hand-seals and suddenly disappeared.

* * *

Kakashi dodged another barrage of kunai from the enemies as he thought.

He was beginning to form a plan and the first step of forming a plan in mid-battle was recognizing your enemies. There were three and he had dubbed them each Black, Brown and Green, based on their hair color.

Black was seemingly the leader of the three, did most of the talking and ordered the other two around, who only begrudgingly complied, showing that he wasn't the true leader of the bandits at least. Black specialized in ninjutsu, earth especially. He was formerly of Cloud, which was deducted by a mere glance at his headband. He had attributed the man to being a C, possibly B,-class missing-nin.

Brown was the only female of the group and seemed to not specialize in anything. Perhaps kenjutsu though, as she constantly attempted to get within range of them to cut one of them down with her sword. She was, like her companion Black, also from Cloud. Her skills were nothing spectacular but he felt it prudent to put her down as C-class.

Green was the most vicious of the group. Being the third member from Cloud, the man relied on kenjutsu primarily and his kunais. He seemed to have an endless supply of them and the scrolls strapped to his waist most likely had more. Every shot the man made was precise and it was only through his jounin-level evasion skills that he found himself untouched. The man could be attributed to C, though most likely B,-class.

Kurenai was having a bit more trouble than him in dealing with the enemies, though he suspected it as more to the fact that she was used to being the one _on_ the offensive, being a genjutsu user and all. They were both looking for openings amongst the enemies' attack pattern but were both finding it difficult to do so. The three enemy ninjas seemed to be used to working together, despite their evident dislike for each other.

"Give up yet?" A smirking Black asked them. His companions had taken their flanks. They were surrounded.

"On the contrary," he said lazily before turning to Kurenai, "Formation B, Plan 'Cipher'."

She nodded and the three enemy ninja tensed.

Then he made the same familiar cross-shaped seal he had seen his blond student make many times.

* * *

When Umako had stabbed the boy through the eye he had expected to see the beautiful shade of red that blood got when it went flying across his vision. What he had gotten was the plain shad of white that smoke got when a shadow clone dispersed.

He swore and nearly killed the man who was stupid enough to ask him what it was that he was so angry about.

However, he had calmed down soon enough. If a good ten minutes later was soon enough.

The boy would be back fairly soon anyways. He still had his pretty little captive with him.

Reminded of the girl he went off a good distance away from the rest of his men.

He motioned for Daisuke to bring the girl to him.

"You knew that boy right?" The girl gave him a fearful nod. "What's his name?"

She looked to be contemplating rejecting answering his question so he brought his blade forward to be at level with her neck. Her brave front immediately dropped.

"Naruto," she whimpered, "His name is Naruto."

What happened next was, in his opinion, not only cliché but a good fair bit of luck.

"Let go off my sister, you asshole!" A small dark-haired boy no older than six or seven had ran out to the empty space in front of them and attempted to break past two of his taller, burlier men. He failed, of course.

"Bring him over here." He said, amidst the girl's tearful shouts of protest. That girl really had a mouth on her.

He would have to cut it off once he was done using it.

"Let her go!" The boy shouted once he was in front of him. The kid on the other hand...

"Please let him go!" The girl was sobbing now and only adding to the noise. It was really giving him a headache.

"Kid, if you don't shut up, I'm gonna kill you." His words were plain and true. He was only looking out for the boy, after all. The boy however, seemed to ignore his little gesture of goodwill and instead chose to keep shouted.

"Boss, may I?" He heard one of his men say. It was a fairly short man, but with many, many scars on his face. He didn't know the exact name but he didn't really pay attention to those kinds of things anyways.

"Cut off his legs. Maybe then he'll stop kicking and screaming." The man gave a cold smirk and drew his katana, then aimed it at the little child.

And then swung at his leader.

He easily dodged the swipe. He was a seasoned veteran in swordplay.

But the man didn't stop there and quickly slashed the blade at the other man closest to him, who was too surprised to dodge it. And then stabbed it through another man, also caught by surprise.

He cursed to himself and yelled at the other men, the three remaining ones, to attack.

They all smirked and proceeded to draw their katanas, and then aim it at him.

He cursed himself and looked at the four men with weapons pointed toward him.

"You're Naruto, right? Why don't you drop the henge so I can see the face of the man I'm about to kill." Immediately after the words he drew his blade.

The four did so and Umako could see the grinning faces of four blonds staring him down.

* * *

The man she and Hinata were fighting depended primarily on taijutsu, that much Sakura knew.

Despite his earlier talks of not being unkind to women the man didn't seem to hold back much. He had pushed her back and forced her to retreat in no more than three strikes, and was currently facing down Hinata. The white-eyed girls was one of the best at the academy on the female side, what with having a clan that was famous for their amazing taijutsu and all.

However the man fighting them seemed to be able to fight them with the no visible strain and was constantly putting the Hyuuga heiress on the defensive.

"You're a Hyuuga, right?" The man asked once he had stopped his bombardment of strikes.

"Y-Yes." Hinata had answered, her panting easily giving away how tired she really was.

"Is this really the full extent of the Gentle Fist? The great Jūken can't do any better?" He sounded disappointed.

Sakura didn't know why; they were only genin. What more could he expect from the girl?

"I'm sorry, but this is your last chance. Move out of the way or I will have to kill you."

For some reason, Sakura found herself a lot less scared of his words than she should've been. Maybe because they lacked the killing intent that Zabuza had dipped them with when he had said them to her team back at Wave. Either way, she was able to keep her mind from frying like it did back then and formulate a plan.

She ran up so she was beside Hinata and took a battle stance, making the other girl look at her in surprise.

She ran through the hand-seals for the one of the only three jutsus she knew.

"Bunshins?" Their opponent looked at them like they were idiots. "You want to try using illusionary clones to beat me?"

"Hinata. Let's go!"

She, Hinata and her three clones charged right then. She attempted to have her clones duck and weave around them to make the enemy a little confused but it probably didn't work.

It didn't matter though all she needed was to get close enough.

Eventually though she didn't have to worry about getting close as the man instead ran directly up to her. Judging by the way he dodged past the clones she made, it was obvious that they hadn't been as effective as she'd hoped. She could see his fist traveling towards her face.

How thankful she was that Hinata slapped it to the side for her.

They both attacked and dodged around the man's strikes with varying levels of success. It didn't matter though as she waited until he had directly hit her before she executed part two of her plan. Grabbing hard onto the arm that had hit her, she threw several smoke bombs onto the floor.

"Hinata, now!" She knew that the other girl's byakugan was able to let her see even with all the smoke.

She had tried to hold on to the man's arms but with his superior strength he had tossed her far away from him.

It hurt a fair bit.

But she felt good. She had come up with a fairly intelligent plan that she desperately hoped would push the tide of the battle into their favour.

By the time she had gotten up, the smoke had cleared more or less. She could see Hinata, panting as hard as ever, standing a good deal farther from her. Their opponent didn't look as tired but she could see one hand rubbing the left side of his stomach. That must have been where Hinata had done the most damage.

"That was some attack." She could hear him saying to Hinata. "I suppose that it was lucky that I didn't allow your strikes to hit me earlier." He grimaced as he let go of his side and took a battle stance once again.

"I'm afraid; I'll have to end this." And he charged at Hinata, who looked too tired to dodge and instead opted to block the shot most likely.

The man's fist was actually less than half a meter away from her face before it was stopped.

Not by Hinata, of course, but somebody whose arrival instantly gave Sakura hope that the battle was not completely lost.

The enemy jumped back, surprised at the arrival of a new combatant.

"Go back and take care of Sakura." He told Hinata. The girl obliged and went back to where she was on her knees to help her back up.

"And who the hell are you?" The enemy seemed to be a lot less polite with males than females.

"Your worst nightmare. Uchiha Sasuke." The boy's sharingan blazed to life as his eyes turned from his regular coal black into the crimson red of his doujutsu.

* * *

"Well, little shinobi? What are you going to do now?"

Kiba grimaced and Shino kept his usual stoic expression.

After finishing the hand-seals for her jutsu the woman had completely disappeared. They could still hear her though. Oh God, how they could hear her. Her voice was coming from all sides, at all angles, right at them. It was hard to pin down the location of the voice. Very, very hard.

Akamaru couldn't see her either and rubbed up closely against his leg. The dog was just as wary as his master.

He looked over at Shino. The Aburame boy had put on a thoughtful expression and upon noticing his friend staring, gave him a confident nod.

It was a combination which Kiba immediately recognized after knowing his friend for so long.

Shino was coming up with a plan.

"So, uh, Kiboyaki, right?" The least he could do was buy the other boy some time to think. "You're no weakling. I can tell that much. What're you doing with a couple of low-life bandits?"

He really hoped that she was the kind of villain who couldn't resist telling her life-story.

"Oh, I've got my reasons, you know? They pay me well and we do get to do a lot of easy jobs." Well, maybe she was.

"Plus it's a hell lot better than being a ninja of that stupid sand village." Scratch that. She _definitely _was.

"Oh? And why's that?"

"They don't know a damn thing about talent. Nobody in this goddamn world does! For five years after graduating I wasn't given the chance to take part in the chunin exams. They said I needed to improve! How dare they?" Her voice was spiteful and angry.

"Even when I was given the opportunity to participate they refused to graduate me, saying things like I 'needed more strategy' or 'think before you act'. Fools! I'm a genjutsu user! When do I _not_ think?"

Right now for example, he wanted to say, but held his tongue.

"So one day I decided to run away and ended up with these guys. They were headed out of Wind Country so I decided to pledge my allegiance to them and one thing led to another. Now I'm living a life with people who give me respect." She chuckled a bit. "They know better than not to."

"But enough talk," she said finally, "It's time for you to die."

"What's this jutsu you put us in?" He hastily asked. He wondered if Shino really needed more time.

She laughed. It was a creepy laugh, what with it bouncing around from every direction and all.

"It's a genjutsu. A relatively powerful one at that. Something tells me that you guys don't know how to break those, do you?" No they didn't. "Well, what it basically does is distort the area around you so you can't see me. Do you remember those flying kunai from earlier?"

"Well every single one of them is actually surrounding you at the moment."

He blinked and wheeled around. He couldn't see anything but that was probably because of the genjutsu.

"Pick a number between one and seven."

"Six," he said without hesitation. What the hell was that about?

"Well then. Blade number six is your choice then." Well, shit.

"It was nice talking to you, bu-" She cut herself off by choking a bit on her words. Then she started coughing heavily.

"Ho-How did..." He could hear her mutter behind him. Wait, _behind _him.

He wheeled around to see the blonde woman behind him as he had suspected. She was pale and in her right hand was a kunai that was aimed at his back. In her other hand was a kunai that was stabbed into her gut.

And holding that kunai was the bloody hand of Aburame Shino.

"Genjutsu is a method of manipulating one's brain to bring forth an illusion. This of course depends on the target to have a brain that is developed and structured enough to be affected. Dogs, humans and many other mammals are developed enough to be affected by genjutsu. My kikaichu, however, are not. They lack such a structure to their brains and are ruled almost entirely their five senses alone. My kikai told me everything I needed to know about the area. In the end all I needed was for you to stay still for a moment and then I could strike."

Kiboyaki, who had somehow stayed alive all the way through Shino's long lecture, laughed and then did something he did not expect of her.

She cried.

Shino looked about as uncomfortable as he did at that.

"I-I can't believe...I'm g-going to die...like this." She hiccupped and choked in between her words.

"We may have enough time to get you to the hospital. If you would just stay sti-"

She pushed Shino's hands away angrily and fell back, the support having been exactly what had been keeping her standing.

"I don't...want...your fucking pity." She just sobbed after that. However her voice seemed to have given up to her coughs and chokes and eventually she was just a twitching, gagging mess on the floor.

Kiba was ashamed to say that he and Shino just stood there and watched her die.

* * *

Kakashi and his two clones went separate ways.

He went after Black. His clones went after Green. He also noted Kurenai going after Brown.

He had the ability to keep his clone alive for about thirty minutes. It was taxing to his reserves to keep it for much longer than that. It didn't matter though, at the moment. He only needed five minutes to finish the entire battle. Three actually, having put out his sharingan immediately after creating the shadow clone.

Black was surprised by his sudden movements but immediately put himself on the defensive as the man used an earth jutsu that sent several slabs of rock flying out at him.

He just used one of his own earth jutsu to create a wall made out of earth. The slabs simply smacked against the wall, which didn't look at all affected by the sudden impacts.

Adding a little bit of chakra to his step, he jumped over the wall and continued his sprint towards Black.

The man was halfway through the hand-seals for another jutsu, an especially long one that he had implanted into the man's mind, when he appeared in front of him. The man seemed surprised at the sudden appearance and stopped mid-movement, attempting to jump back and create distance between him and the other shinobi.

Kakashi's kunai piercing his neck was enough to show how foolish of an idea that was.

The man attempted to say something, but he didn't have the time to listen to listen to his gurgles.

Green had finished off his clones and was making his way to attack Kurenai.

However, the man stopped when he noticed his ally's dead body. Stopped to laugh, that is. Brown had slowed down her battle with Kurenai to see

"So you killed him? Gotta thank you for that. I was almost gonna do it too, considering how annoying he is. At least it's a lot easier to fight with him shutting the fuck up for once."

"Oye! Horuki! Go distract that woman while I take out the Copy-cat." Brown, or rather Horuki, nodded and proceeded to re-pounce on Kurenai.

He didn't really have time to pay attention to their match though, as Green had charged at him at a relatively quick speed.

The man had a sword in his hands, retrieved most likely from the scroll that lay a good distance behind him, and knew how to use it. His strikes were fluid and concise; exactly how a swordsman had to be. The Green was quick too; his sword moving at a blinding speed.

Kakashi was just as fast, though.

His kunai matched each of the sword's strikes, parrying the blows to the side. He could see that Green was growing frustrated by this quickly. Considering the man may have a short temper, he decided it was time for some good old fashion taunting.

"Is that really the best you've got?" He said in between parries. "I really don't have time for this. Maybe your fried wants to play instead?"

Green didn't break out into a massive sort of rage like he hoped. Instead the man gave him a grin.

"I suppose I really should show you my best." Green aimed his sort at him and closed his eyes briefly.

From the viewpoint of his sharingan eye he could see the man gather all of his chakra around his blade. What he saw when he looked with his normal eye was Green's chakra taking a visible shape around his blade. The man then swung his blade at him, incidentally also flung his chakra at him.

It was surprising but he managed to dodge it.

His enemy smirked.

"This is my true power. My chakra whip."

Green swung at him again and again, laughing as he danced around his attacks. The whip was flexible and fast. It was powerful as well, if the way it broke apart the ground it hit had anything to say about it. However he had the perfect tool to fight against it.

Giving himself a good amount of space between the enemy and him, Kakashi went through the all-too-familiar hand-seals for his Raikiri before charging at Green.

If his jutsu could break through lightning it could break through that chakra whip as well.

Green simply smirked at his charge and took it as a challenge, pumping more and more chakra into the whip.

Kakashi could see the whip coming for him and swung the arm with his lightning cutter in a stabbing motion. It cut through the chakra whip easily but it didn't stop there.

The technique was made to kill and soon enough he found his arm deep inside Green's chest.

"H-How..." In his dying moments, it was fury that remained prevalent on his face.

"I made that technique to cut through anything."

With that, he pulled his arm free and went to aide Kurenai in her battle.

* * *

Sasuke inspected the man in front of him.

He was fairly injured, that much was obvious with him clutching his side so noticeably. The man himself was dark-haired like him and had a taller, stronger build. The man had stopped rubbing his injury after some time and went into a battle stance. Sasuke did likewise.

"My name is Hiroshi. I am a taijutsu fighter."

Sasuke frowned at the sudden disclosing of information.

"And why are you telling me this?"

"You have given me your name. It's only common courtesy that I do the same." That was a strange thing to say.

"Well, _Hiroshi_," he said, putting a cutting emphasis on the name, "I'm afraid I'll have to take you down now."

The man sneered back.

"Just try, _Uchiha_." Well. Now he was going to just have to squeeze kicking the man's ass somewhere in his agenda.

Sasuke was the one to charge first. He aimed a punch at the man's face, who rotated his head to dodge it. The man tried to land a punch of his own, but Sasuke slapped it away with his free arm and kneed him. Or rather, triedto knee him. The man had jumped back, having seen the attack coming.

However, Hiroshi was at the disadvantage, being previously injured. Plus Sasuke's sharingan was a good enough of an asset to put anyone at the disadvantage, injury regardless.

The man initiated the next successions of parries and blows, by charging at the young Uchiha. He made a sweeping kick at Sasuke's feet in an attempt to trip him. The attempt failed, of course, due to him being able to seeing it coming. He jumped over Hiroshi's feet and kicked him in the jaw, knocking the taller man back.

"Your taijutsu is good," Hiroshi said, rubbing his jaw tenderly, "And you're fast as well."

"I've once fought someone much faster than you." He was talking about the masked boy, of course. His hate for the individual who not only beat him, but disgraced him by doing so half-heartedly. The shots that had been sent at him weren't meant to kill. That infuriated him beyond belief.

Almost as much as the fact that Naruto had defeated him when he could not.

His opponent sighed and took a stance once more. Then charged.

Sasuke dodged blows and found his thoughts for some reason still stuck on the blond member of his team.

Naruto had told him that he would explain his powers once they had gotten back to Konoha.

Hiroshi kicked at his stomach. He dodged around it.

When he had questioned Naruto about it in Konoha the boy refused to tell him more.

He aimed a kick at Hiroshi, who tried to dodge. The man ultimately failed however and was knocked back.

He had argued on several occasions with Naruto to tell him. That he deserved to know about the full extent of the other boy's powers. His teammate had refused completely during those arguments, telling him that he would only tell the Uchiha when he was ready.

He ran up to Hiroshi, who was still a little disorientated. The man attempted to block the punch that flied towards his face but failed. His fist hit the man's nose and he could hear some bones breaking. This opened up a chance for another punch, which also connected.

He told Naruto if he didn't tell him then he would break his face. Naruto told him that if he tried then it wouldn't be the blond's face that would be breaking. They got into a fight. He won but he could tell that Naruto was holding back. The level of strength he had seen could not have possibly defeated the masked boy.

Hiroshi was knocked flat on his back. He sat down upon him and continued to punch him. His hands were getting bloody and he could see that Hiroshi's face was doing the same.

Naruto had denied the accusations after he had questioned him about it. It infuriated him. He raised his voice at the other boy, and started shouting about the things he would do to him if he didn't get answers. Naruto shouted back and told promptly told him to fuck off and mind his own business.

"Sasuke-kun! Stop! You're killing him!" He could hear his pink-haired teammate yelling. He continued to beat Hiroshi's face. The man's face was almost entirely coated in blood and he was missing several teeth. He continued to hit him.

In his rage, he had thrown a kunai at Naruto. A sudden sea of guilt had overtaken him immediately at the action. He was going to kill his best friend. Itachi's words from all those years ago came into his head at that moment.

Hiroshi's struggles had died down. The man's eyes were getting hazy and blank as he knocked another tooth out of him.

Luckily or unluckily Kakashi appeared and pulled Naruto to the side. The blond boy watched the kunai sail past where he had previously been, and then turned back to him. Naruto looked shocked at first, then confused and the enraged. He gave a shout of anger and charged at him, but Kakashi held him back. He turned and ran away. The next day, Kakashi pulled him aside during training and coldly gave him a lecture about attacking teammates. Naruto didn't talk to him at all for the rest of that week.

Hiroshi's eyes had hazed over completely and the color had drained from his face. His new paleness contrasted with the large amounts of blood on his face. He had beaten the man to death.

Weeks passed by and they had gone back to their regular routine, or rather what their regular routine had become after the Wave mission. Kakashi arrived late, Sakura pestered him, he didn't talk to anybody and Naruto mirrored his actions, though with considerable more sociability.

He stopped punching Hiroshi and looked down at the man he had just killed. Getting off the body and scrambling to his feet, he walked into the hospital, passing the pale pair of Sakura and Hinata. He took a left at the receptionist's desk and went into the washroom.

He needed to wash his hands.

* * *

"Take the brat to some place safe." His clones nodded and, despite the six-year old's protests, dragged him off into the opposite direction of Umako.

"Lemme go!" He could hear the brat say. Nonetheless his clones took him away. For good reason too. That boy was more like dead weight in this situation than an asset.

Umako sneered at him.

"I don't need that runt. I still got your cute little girl friend." The red-headed man's face had a sort of twisted smirk on it. It really pissed Naruto off.

"Just let her go. Let her go and I'll let you leave from this place, limbs intact and all." Despite his generous warning, his enemy just laughed in his face and motioned to his only remaining minion to back off a bit.

"Oye, Daisuke! Keep a little to the side. I wanna see if I can chop off this kid's limbs instead of killing him. Just to give him the honour of getting to watch me fuck the shit out of his little girlfriend. For the few minutes that he's alive for, anyways."

The previous offer has unfortunately been retracted, he found himself thinking.

"Guess I'm gonna have to kill you," he muttered to himself. For some reason, this would be a whole lot easier than it was with Haku.

Umako swung his sword around, as if testing its weight, before pointing it at him.

"Are you gonna charge first or will I?"

He shrugged and instead opted to investigate his opponent. The man was taller than him. Much, much taller. And had a wider, stronger build as well. He didn't wear any sort of headband, not even the kind with the mark that said one was a missing-nin, so he probably wasn't a ninja. The man was ruthless though. His clone's memories were a testament to that. Umako wasn't a pushover.

The red-head was still going to get his ass kicked, though.

After all, Naruto was no pushover himself. His taijutsu training with Gai had improved him to the point where he could pretty much hold his own against Sasuke. And that was with his weights on. The very same weights that he had taken off before rushing to Umako's location. If worst came to worst he could use the Kyuubi's chakra, though he'd rather avoid it.

His thoughts were cut short by Umako charging at him. Evidently the man had grown tired of his lack of response and had decided to take matters into his own hands.

The man made a downward slash with his blade. Naruto sidestepped it.

Umako was fast. His continuous attempts to cut him to little pieces said that much at least about him.

But Naruto was as well. He'd fought faster, anyways.

"Stay still and let me cut you, brat!" He could hear the man say after another one of his swipes barely missed, one that was a little close for comfort in his opinion. He drew a kunai and attempted to parry the next.

It was a difficult task though. He found himself pushed back, kunai nearly knocked away from his hands.

Umako had one hell of a swing. Turning their battle to a blade-on-blade face-off was not the best idea, he realized.

"I'm not a ninja, you know. But that doesn't mean I'm weak." He could hear Umako say as he recovered. "I'm fast and strong. You have no idea of the kind of training a samurai had to go through back in the day." So the man was a former samurai?

"You have no idea of the kind of training a shinobi has to go through." That was his comeback.

The man snorted. "I was only around for less than half of it, you know. They kicked me out for my 'unruly behaviour'." Umako laughed his twisted little laugh.

"It doesn't matter. Half a samurai is more than enough to take on any shinobi."

The man seemed to have a high opinion of samurais.

"If you think samurais are so great, why didn't you become one?"

"I told you, you brat. I was kicked out half-way through." Umako looked annoyed at having to repeat his failures.

When he laughed the man's look turned from annoyed to murderous.

"Whoa there! I'm not laughing at you. It's just kinda funny that we've been in similar scenarios."

"Oh? Do tell." He had no idea why he was getting chummy with the guy that had threatened to rape Kane. Why did he have a habit of chatting down enemies? Whatever the reason was, it didn't stop him from telling.

"You call yourself a half-samurai. I guess I could call myself a half-shinobi. I wasn't really the kid who paid attention in class at all, really. People got mad at me all the time and told me I had 'unruly behaviour'. I didn't really even pass the genin exam. At least not the way everybody else did."

He laughed again. Something about the current scenario made him want to laugh.

Umako looked at him curiously. Then shrugged.

"So it's a half-samurai against a half-shinobi."

"A battle of failures." He cheekily supplied.

Umako laughed at that.

"You're an interesting guy. Too bad we can't talk much more. I think I might just regret killing you."

"Wish I could say the same to you."

He crossed his hands into his favourite hand-seal and created four shadow clones. They all charged at Umako together.

The man was fully prepared. He deflected all five kunai strikes that came flying at him with his sword, though Naruto could see the strain on his face to do so. However all was not perfect on his own side. He could see that despite their advantage in numbers, his clones were no more physically powerful then him. Whenever one was pushed back, it was trouble for the others, who had to dodge around him.

In such a quick-paced battle, he couldn't afford for his clones to be thrown into his way. Though that seemed to be happening all too frequently, to his annoyance.

Naruto gave a low growl as his first clone was dispelled, not by Umako's sword, but by his own kunai as he went for what he thought was an opening. Umako had merely left the hole in his defence to bat his clone into him.

Two more clones were dispelled, this time by the red-headed man's blade.

He cursed and charged at Umako, his clone trailing behind him. He slashed and stabbed with his kunai repeatedly, with the former-samurai switching between dodging and parrying his strikes. After Umako's fourth or so parry the red-headed man jumped back and made a horizontal slash, easily doable because of his sword having a longer reach than his kunai. He ducked low as the sword just barely breezed over his head.

Suddenly he felt weight on his shoulder, though it left just as quickly as it came. When he looked up he immediately understood what it was. His final clone had jumped over and in front of him, using his shoulder as leverage. His clone made it all the way to in front of Umako and made a stabbing motion with the kunai.

Only to have Umako simply sidestep the attack and make his own stabbing motion at the clown, one which actually succeeded.

He was all by himself as Umako charged at him again. He stood up fully and attempted to parry the same way that he had seen Umako do. It was difficult. Umako's strikes had gotten even wilder and faster, if that was possible. He found his hands getting fairly sweaty and sore. That was bad enough by itself, but it just _had _to get worse.

With a quick slash, the red-headed man had batted the kunai out of his aching grip. It went flying off somewhere to his left side. It was evidently the wrong idea to stare at the flying kunai as his adversary took full advantage of the distraction and thrust his blade towards the area around his stomach.

It pierced it, of course. The attack was far too precise and quick not to.

"Guess you lost, half-shinobi." He had a high definition close-up view of Umako's sneer. Somewhere in the background he could hear a girl's scream, most likely Kane.

The former samurai responsible for the hole in his stomach pulled the sword out of him and kicked him back. It wasn't really necessary; he was already about to fall onto his back.

He could see Umako give him another sneer as the red-head looked down at him. It annoyed him a lot.

As the man turned around, most likely to go to where Kane was, he had figured out his only possible course of action.

And he didn't like it. Not one bit.

But he had failed. All that training he had gone through to not have to be put in the situation he was in had failed. He had nobody to blame but himself.

So he went through with it.

Help me out, you stupid fox, he said in his head. He kind of hoped the answer would be no, but he had a feeling that most likely wouldn't turn out to be the point.

_**But of course**_, Kyuubi said back to him. He was right, though no real surprise to him.

He felt the same feeling he had felt in Wave. The nauseating but wonderful feeling that was just so amazing. And horrific.

The red chakra was spreading all across his body. Umako was probably looking back at him, puzzled. He had stopped feeling the wound that the red-head had given him on his stomach. He found himself getting up. Not by his own effort, of course, but by the red chakra. It had hoisted him up and helped him to take a step towards Umako. Then another. Then several more.

By the fourth or fifth step he didn't need it anymore. He had regained full feeling throughout his entire body. He looked up to Umako, who was giving him a confused, and slightly frightened, look.

The man calmed himself down after a bit of time and then spoke.

"W-What the hell are you?"

"Your death." It was a truthful thing to say.

Umako glared and charged at him, the man's blade in a ready position to strike.

It never touched him though. Just like his battle with Haku, he moved at such a speed the man didn't have a chance to do much of anything. He punched Umako in the gut. The man's knees buckled at the impact.

So he punched again. And then several more times, before finishing it off with a spin-around kick.

Umako had dropped his sword at that point, clutching his stomach. He had hit the man hard enough for him to start coughing blood.

But he wasn't done just then.

He was upon the red-head in an instant and lifted him into the air by his neck. The man clutched at his hand and kicked around as it tightened his grip. He was attempting to scream but only choked words came out. Naruto simply tightened his hold upon his neck.

The man kicked out even harder at this and scratched at his arms. The attempts were in vain; he didn't really feel a thing. He just kept his grip as hard as steel, never faltering the slightest.

Umako's breathing was limited to simple gasps and wheezing. Though that soon enough he had stopped it and instead made sounds that sounded close to gurgling.

His face had turned blue at that point and his struggles had for the most part, died down. He still made the very same choking noises he had made earlier though.

It was some time before he stopped. His eyes had closed at that point. His body had slumped over as well. It was kind of surreal just then. The man had become something he could liken to a doll at that point.

_**Choking the life right out of him**_, he heard Kyuubi say in his mind._** What a beautiful way to kill**_.

Kyuubi`s words suddenly made him realize that he still had an iron grip on the man`s neck. He let go of Umako immediately, wincing a bit at the sickening crunch it made when it hit the ground. He kind of wanted to barf at the moment but held it in. It didn`t seem appropriate to vomit on a dead person.

So he turned his gaze to the side where the only other bandit remained. The man was shaking and pale, actions that were mirrored by the girl he held prisoner. Upon noticing Naruto`s gaze on him the man screamed and let go of Kane. Then ran off in the opposite direction. He didn`t stop him.

Despite the Kyuubi`s wild protests, he felt the red chakra recede. He might`ve forced it to or it might`ve gone away on his own. He didn`t really know and didn't really care either.

As the overwhelming power left him, so did much of his will to stay conscious.

Just like at Wave he could feel his entire body suddenly aching for sleep and his strength feeling depleted.

So he lost conscious, the last thing he saw being Kane's pale, tear-stricken face.

* * *

_**A/N: **_aaaaand that's the end of my little side-arc. What'd you guys think? I personally think I could've done better but I'd like to know if other people share the same views and why. It'll help me deliver better chapters in the future.

And Sasuke's not a bad guy. Just genuinely really, really fucked up in the head. He's like Naruto in that aspect. Except he's kinda batshit crazy. Like Naruto. (Though in a way, aren't we all?)

ALSO IN THE NEXT CHAPTER: Naruto and everybody say goodbye to the village whose name I may or may not have mentioned. Jiraiya comes back to Konoha to check out Naruto's seal. Naruto gets a little training from the old pervert and finds out the chunin exams are coming up soon.  
It's going to be a less action-y chapter and going to be more of a character development one. That's right; around 10k of character development is what you will be put through in the next chapter. How awesome is that?


	4. NOTE: STORY WILL BE ABANDONEDDELETED

**NOTE: I actually want to apologize to everyone who enjoys this story to tell you all that I'm not really going to be able to continue it. With school starting I have more to worry about, i.e. grades. Plus, I really think I've lost the drive for this story in general. The only reason I was able to really update so often for it originally was because of the constant writing I did for it. Ever since I took a break from it, I found that I couldn't really get back into it. I tried practically everything (which included writing about 20k words each for several other stories) but nothing seemed to work. Which is why I'm going to be completely abandoning it. **

**As I personally know the feeling that comes with having a story that you like be abandoned (though this is assuming some of you actually like this story), I'm going to be deleting this within ten days. **

**Within those ten days, if anyone wants to take the story off my hands via adoption or perhaps just take the concept and make it their own, just PM me and I'll make it official. Honestly, I'd love to see what this could do in the hands of another (probably more competent author). **


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